


All Hands On Deck

by HufflepuffLovesPizza



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Bear gets to play in the sand and ocean, Book Therapy, Brunch, Canon slight divergent, Cooking Therapy, F/F, Floating exercises, Fluff, Hot Tub Therapy, Hot Yoga, IKEA Therapy, Karaoke therapy, Slightly Smutty, massage therapy, slightly AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2018-05-30 21:28:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 144,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6441451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HufflepuffLovesPizza/pseuds/HufflepuffLovesPizza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Team Machine goes undercover at a couples retreat in Hawaii, it's a 'all hands on deck' type of situation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. All Hands on Deck

**Author's Note:**

> After reading so many very talented, wonderful, brilliant writers on the site, I felt inspired to try some fluff.

Finch was busy typing away at his elaborate workstation in the subway lair when Root sauntered in wearing skimpy shorts, kneepads, elbow guards and carrying a helmet. Reese didn’t bother looking up from cleaning his guns on a nearby table. Bear briefly looked up and then went back to lounging in his bed with a new massive chew toy from his not so secret admirer stalker. Root winced when she sat down on the bench to take off the kneepads and elbow guards, revealing several bruises and scrapes. She had hoped Shaw would be there to play doctor; sadly she didn’t spot her favorite grumpy hottie primary asset. Harold looked up with a mildly surprised look on his face, even though Root changed identities like tissue paper, he was still in awe at her chameleon like quality to look like so many different people. 

“I’m in a roller derby league this week. Our number was targeted because in her day job she works at a high level bio-tech lab that Samaritan wants access to,” she continued to pull off the rest of her gear. “Too bad Shaw isn’t working this number, she would be such a natural at roller derby.”

“Hey nerd, what makes you think I’m not in a league,” Shaw’s voice came through Finch, Reese and Root’s respective earpieces; probably Fusco too, as he was out in the field doing his detective work but on number help standby. Root couldn’t help the huge smile that spread across her face. 

“Hey sweetie, which team are you on? I’m on the Perky Pychos. Maybe our teams will have a match, I’ll get to use my beaver cleaver move on you,” Root smiled one of her most seductive smiles even though she knew Shaw couldn’t see it. She did hear a pretty epic volatile sounding exhale of air, with a very prolonged sigh. And she knew it had to be accompanied by a massive eye roll by her favorite primary asset. Harold looked aghast and turned back to his computer screen and spoke before Shaw had time for a rebuttal. 

“Ms. Shaw are you almost done with the current number?” asked Finch in hopes of stopping any further double entrendres from Ms. Groves.  


“Threat isolated and removed. The number is safe and secure. You owe me a steak for record time,” the smirk on Shaw’s face could be heard, she sounded pretty pleased with herself. “Do we already have a new number?”

“Yes, there are 12 new numbers to be exact,” Harold was busying typing away again. 

“12? At the same time?” asked Reese looking up from cleaning one of his guns. 

“Yes, and thankfully they are all at the same location,” Finch continued to type and scan his multiple computer screens. “Of course all 12 being at the same location means it ‘s a bigger threat with more potential for innocent people getting hurt.”

“Yet it does cut down on commute time,” said Root as she stood up and walked over to Finch’s desk to stare over his shoulder. 

“Yes, however there is substantial commute time as the 12 numbers are all located at a remote resort. They are attending a very highly sensitive conference concerning global climate change and nuclear energy. All 12 numbers are scientists and my guess is that Samaritan wants to shut down any findings the scientists might reveal to the public.” Harold had a look of concern on his face. 

“We all know we’re doomed, what else is there for the public to know?” Shaw deadpanned. 

“Way to look on the bright side sweetie,” said Root smirked while looking at the details of the mission over Harold’s shoulders much to his discomfort. 

“Ms. Shaw there is the difference of knowing, and then there is knowing that if we give up certain amenities we could sustain life for a much longer period of time. Maybe even reverse some of the impending outcome,” replied Finch with a thoughtful look on his face. 

“Amenities…such as…” Shaw asked. 

“Sorry, Sam but one of them would be steak,” Root answered before Harold, he nodded in agreement. 

“I think world doom might be more enjoyable than vegan Shaw,” Reese grimaced and shrugged. 

“I would almost be inclined to agree with you Mr. Reese, if it didn’t mean world decimation,” said Finch with his eyebrows raised. 

“Look at that Sam, the world is going to end so you can have a steak,” said Root. 

Before Shaw had time to say anything, Finch piped in, “I have just finished your covers,” turning to find Root staring a little too intensely at his screens. “There is a very exclusive couples retreat going on at the same time as the conference, the only two events at the resort.” Before Finch can explain the covers Reese suggests an idea. 

“I can be a bellhop again, that worked that one time,” Reese said while looking at Finch. “At the resort.” 

“I’m sorry Mr. Reese, however you are needed a more flexible cover this time. You’ll be attending the couples retreat with Ms. Groves posing as your wife.” Reese looked up to Finch with mild surprise on his face. 

“Can I least check and see if Zoe is available?” asked Reese staring at Finch. Root tilted her head and added a mild glare aimed at Reese. 

“She’s not, she’s out of the country at the moment working as a peace liaison between several hostile political groups in very remote locations herself,” Finch relayed the information, while gathering up some papers on his desk. “And before you protest or offer up different pairings Ms. Groves, this one really was the most believable.” Root shrugged, she knew that Harry knew she would have suggested her and Shaw as a couple in need of therapy. A girl can always dream of more alone time with her crush, especially if it also includes a remote resort and intense therapy. 

“Well, then John, should we start working on our pet nicknames for each other?” said Root with a big smirk. “I love the old favorites, big lug, helper monkey or lurch.”

Suddenly, Fusco chimed in on the communications link, “Reese, I’ve got lots of suggestions for her. Coca puffs, Froot Loops, Banana Nut Crunch…” you could tell by his voice his list could go on and on. Reese tried to hide a small smile. 

“Lionel, are all your nicknames for me cereal related?” asked Root with a hint of sarcasm waiting for his kickback. 

“Glad you could join us Mr. Fusco,” said Finch, “We will be requiring your services as well on this mission. This is as they say, an all hands on deck type of situation.”

“So Harry, you haven’t said where we are headed?” asked Root with a mischievous glint in her eyes, obviously she already knew the location, she just wanted to hear the reaction of her teammates. 

“The conference is located in a remote resort on the outskirts of Maui,” said Finch. 

“Finch, are you taking us all on vacation? Because then I’m in, remember I said many times before you looked like you could use some sun. And I need some surf and turf.” Shaw was thinking to herself how she really wanted to see Reese and Root pretend to be married. Reese had a very similar beginning with Root as Shaw did with lying and the almost getting dead part, minus the hot iron incident. The iron was just for Shaw and for some reason the thought tugged at her stomach, which she hoped just meant she was hungry. “I will hang at the beach, get some fun in the sun and then swoop in at the end to kick some righteous ass.”

“Sorry, Ms. Shaw but with such a high number count and all of them being world renowned scientists, they are all relevant. You will also be attending the couples retreat along with Mr. Reese and Ms. Groves taking place at the resort.”

“No offense Finch, I don’t think you and I are going to make the most believable couple,” it almost sounded as if Shaw snorted while saying the last part. 

“No, we would not. I think you and Lionel could illustrate a couple yearning for some referring and therapy far better than a pairing between us,” said Finch with his eyebrows raised. 

“I’m married to Fusco? In what distorted parallel universe? Why can’t Root be married to Fusco?”

“Hey, you’re not my first choice either shorty. Geesh, being married to you, I might start drinking again,” Fusco said through the communications link. 

“We’ll have to go on a double date while at the resort,” said Root smiling at Reese. “It will be so much fun catching up with the Fuscos.” While Reese winced, Root continued to smile and Finch began explaining more details for the mission with a concerned look on his face. 

*******

Root and Reese arrived in a cab first to the resort. They waltzed through the grand entrance with bellhops behind them pushing their multiple suitcases on a hotel luggage cart. As soon as the retreat’s organizer spotted them she descended upon them in the lobby. 

“Hello, I’m Joan Williams, the executive assistant to Ms. Tinswell,” Joan had a huge welcoming smile and looked down to her clipboard. “You two fit your profiles so perfect. Just so…so very perfect.” Joan’s eyes raked over both of them many times, she acted as if she was star struck by the tall handsome pair who wear both impeccably dressed. Reese in one of his nice suits, Root in a fashionable dress. 

“Lydia Tinswell is the therapist running the retreat,” Finch informed them all through their earpieces. “She’s a pretty well known therapist, with several best selling self help books as well.”  


“Can someone shoot me in the kneecaps so I can go home,” Shaw said through the communications link as soon as Harold was finished speaking. “I can’t believe you made us dress like this Finch,” huffed Shaw. 

John smiled his trademark charming smile at Joan, “I’m John Brooke, this is my wife Samantha,” he gestured to Root who also put on her most charming smile. 

“You can call me Sam,” she told Joan, and Root thought she caught a severe look of irritation from Shaw’s face who just now entered the lobby along with Fusco. Root couldn’t help hide her amused smile when she saw both of them walking towards them. They looked kind of adorable, in a very grumpy old odd married couple way. 

Joan continued to stare at Reese and Root a little too long for a comfortable moment, “You two look like a model couple or movie stars! Straight from a runway or a catalog. Both so tall and so beautiful,” she looked them over all over again while putting her hand on each of their arms, “please tell me you have five kids. Don’t want those genes going to waste.” They both smiled at Joan and faked a little laugh. 

“Well, actually that’s one of her issues Joan,” Root said pretty casually for a first greeting. Joan nodded and then glanced at Shaw and Fusco. Both wearing more casual clothes, instructed by Harold to dress down which Shaw didn’t have a problem with, Fusco however looked a little out of place without his tired suit and tie. A track suite did nothing to improve Fusco’s appearance thought Shaw, if anything it just made Lionel look like a cheap mobster from Atlantic City or a possible extra from The Sopranos. Since Harold pointed out if Shaw wore her usual go to black tank top and pants that she would clash so loudly with Lionel, he instructed her to also wear a tracksuit. Shaw drew the line at matching tracksuits. And she looked like a grumpy little pill in a slim fitting track suit. Root had a hard time keeping her eyes off Shaw. 

“And you two are…just so…coordinated?” Shaw felt like she could stab the woman if only she was wearing stiletto heels, she did not appreciate the woman’s less than admirable comparison to Reese and Root. What she thought, just because they were shorter and were wearing tracksuits they weren’t as good as Reese and Root. She tried to keep her seething at the retreat woman under control. So even if Fusco wasn’t up to John’s standards in appearance, she more than made up for both of them. 

“You must be Lionel and…Sam. Another Sam?” Joan smiled tentatively at Fusco and Shaw who seemed to have plastic smiles on their faces. 

“She goes by Sammy,” Fusco smiled at Joan and put his arm around Shaw’s waist, which pulled her tightly against his chest. Shaw flinched so hard Root thought Shaw was going to put her elbow through Fusco’s stomach. So Root reached out to grab Shaw’s arm for a handshake. 

“How nice to meet another Sam,” Root leaned over to shake Shaw’s hand, which was not outstretched, so she patted her arm while still holding onto it a little too forcibly to keep Shaw from hitting her or Fusco or possibly Joan. 

Joan handed out the room keys and told them the first session would be a group session starting in an hour then followed by a private sessions with each couple.

“Sounds great, gives me and Sammy some time to freshen up,” Lionel actually smacked Shaw’s butt, “Let’s go baby cakes.” 

Shaw’s eye popped wide and if they hadn’t been undercover, Fusco no doubt would have lost a finger or possibly his whole hand. Even Reese and Root both had raised eyebrows at Fusco’s boldness and willingness to throw himself into his married undercover persona to such degree that he was already putting himself in mortal danger by smacking Shaw’s bottom. Root almost admired Fusco’s bravado except she knew Shaw’s payback wasn’t going to be pleasant for the detective. 

“Sure thing…papa bear,” Shaw growled out while she turned and headed towards the elevators fuming. Root could almost swear there was steam billowing out from Shaw’s ears. 

*****

As soon as Shaw and Fusco walked into their room, the door was slammed shut. Shaw jammed her elbow into Fusco’s gut so fierce; he doubled over and was left breathless. Shaw kept walking into the room. 

“No touching, no nicknames,” as Shaw huffed into the room, looking around quickly to check for square footage. 

“What are you a lap dancer?” Fusco couldn’t help the joke since he felt like his stomach had been knocked out his backside. Shaw glared at him so coldly, he raised his hands in a give up gesture, still regaining his breath and wincing in pain. 

Shaw groaned while taking a look around their room, for a swanky resort it was nice just not big enough to hold her and Fusco together. The biggest complaint was that there was only one bed. Thankfully there was a large couch in a sunken living room. Of course, sunken part meant they were in one large room. No, this would not work at all. She did not care to know the sleeping and grooming habits of one Detective Fusco. 

“I call dibs on the bed,” Shaw said very quickly; to a pained groan response from Fusco. 

“You know I got a bad back and I’ve got seniority,” Fusco said, “So I get the bed.” 

“What about ladies first?” Even as Shaw said this, she regretted pulling the ‘girl’ card; she just really wanted the bed. 

“What lady? You’re more compact than me, I can’t fit on the couch,” Fusco said while finally straightening out his back still in pain from Shaw’s gut punch. 

“How many nights do we have to stay here?” asked Shaw. “I’m guessing it depends on how fast we can figure out how someone is going to kill 12 people at one time.”

“Isn’t pretty obvious…” then Fusco made an explosion noise with his lips. Shaw just nodded in a yeah, yeah gesture. 

Even though they were in a beautiful setting on a resort, this mission could end up feeling the longest if Shaw had to share a room for more than two nights with Fusco. She almost wished she was sharing with Root, but then thought Reese was a way better choice; he was probably a tidy, quiet roommate. They could be good roomies, they could sit in comfortable silence and clean their guns. Although, Root does smell better than Reese, so that was a plus she had going for her in Shaw’s roommate book. Now that she noticed how Root smelled all the time or cared. She did wonder how they were handling their room situation. She smiled, she was pretty sure Root would be pushed to the couch, even though Reese was a gentlemen, he did need his beauty sleep. 

******

Shaw and Fusco headed down to the room where the first group therapy session was being held, Reese and Root were already there talking to another couple. They somehow managed to change into even more flattering outfits, Shaw inwardly groaned; they kind of did look like a model couple. Where did they get their resort looking outfits, it was kind of weird to see Reese in casual attire. There were five couples total in the room. The other three couples varied in ages. There were one couple that looked in their 20s, one middle aged and one older one. Everyone awaited the arrival of Dr. Tinswell.  


Shaw kept scanning the room while getting closer to Reese and Root, only half listening to the ongoing conversations around the room. But then Root’s voice caught her attention, and damn not like a Pavlov dog she responded without thinking. 

“Hey, sweetie,” Root said already putting her cup in Reese’s hand much to his grimace. “Could you hold my coffee please,” Root looked at John but she got an unexpected response.

“Not now Root,” said Shaw quietly for only Root to hear, she looked for the table with snacks that Joan promised would be available. “I’m looking for the snacks.” 

“Actually, I was talking to my husband John,” Root leaned in very closely to Shaw and whispered into her ear. “It’s good to know you’re my sweetie too.” Shaw could smell the smell that she had not been thinking about, the one she associated with the tall brunette. The smell seemed a mixture between shampoo, some exotic perfume and just pure Root. It was a smell her brain had mesmerized for the sole purpose of preventing close encounters with the hacker, and nothing else; that is what she kept telling herself. She could feel Root’s breathing on her cheek. Root’s smirk was so big, Shaw really wanted to knock it from her face like the good old days, but didn’t think slugging someone at a therapy session was a good idea for her cover. And she was more concerned it would lead to more therapy sans snacks. 

Before Shaw could get some snacks Dr. Lydia Tinswell entered the room and greeted everyone. She appeared to be a cross between Dr. Joyce Brothers and Oprah, with a little Dr. Phil mixed in. She instructed them to sit in a circle, when Root passed by Shaw she discreetly put a protein bar in her hand. Shaw gave her annoyed look, then couldn’t stop a smirk popping up. Root noticed, so then Shaw had to roll her eyes on purpose to discourage the prepared hacker. After all the couples were seated in a large circle and they were instructed not speak to each other. Dr. Tinswell explained they were going to do breathing exercises for the next 60 minutes. Shaw gave out three hard coughs that were strategically planned and spaced out so she could open the protein bar before the silence started. Root smiled while watching the dark haired beauty in a rather demure tracksuit. Reese kept surveying the room. Fusco tried to find a comfortable position in his chair. 

The sixty minutes doing breathing exercises with no talking proved to be very challenging sixty minutes to four certain individuals, well really only three as one fell asleep and started snoring at the 12-minute mark. Shaw poked Fusco several times to keep waking him up while also discreetly chewing her protein bar. Finch did ease some of the pain by broadcasting a football game for Reese and Shaw through their earpieces. Root said she was okay, The Machine was whispering all the background information for all the scientists at the convention. Although, the three of them kept exchanging glances whenever Tinswell looked at the other three couples. Shaw was very aware even though they were told to close their eyes, every time she opened her eyes Root was staring at her. How did she keep doing that? Surely, she wasn’t staring at her the whole time. 

Root knew that her staring was unnerving the compact Persian, so she couldn’t help but do it more. Once she found out certain things annoyed the gorgeous dark haired asset she couldn’t help herself from repeating them over and over, always in hopes of getting a raise out of the woman. She had only recently admitted to herself that she might be completely smitten by the shorter woman since the day they first met. At first it was just to irritate her teammate and then as time passed, with several joint missions together, finding out they work really well together that things had changed. The notion of irritating Shaw for fun turned into irritating Shaw to get some kind of attention from her. Or some form of interaction, however fun was still pretty important. In some ways they were very similar to each other, hence the great teammate aspect; yet in others there were vast differences between them like an endless abyss. Root knew she had never met anyone in her life that she wanted to cross an endless abyss for, and admitting to herself that she would for Shaw really scared her sometimes. Especially, since Shaw didn’t seem to like her very much at times. She wasn’t so much admitting defeat on the Shaw front, she just painfully realized that she just wanted her only other female teammate to be in her life in some aspect. And if that meant just as friends, she would eventually, hopefully, learn to accept and respect the course of action. Then again, Root never went down without an epic fight, so she still had a few ideas on the Shaw front. And there were some very slight glimpses that Shaw did care for her, even deeply enough to save her ass a few times. Root realized she had been zoning out on listening to The Machine, she straightened up in her chair and concentrated. The Machine had sensed her mind wandering, it started repeating the same information. She opened her eyes briefly and noticed this time Shaw was watching her, although the staring was quickly averted when noticed which caused Root to have a genuine smile as she lowered her head so nobody would see.


	2. Pre-Therapy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and the nice comments! And big thanks to T_Ninja for a really great idea that I hope to do justice in the next part :-) Thank you!

When the painful sixty minutes were up, they were all surprised that Harold hadn’t sounded an alarm or some kind of distraction to get them out earlier. The foursome decided to split up to scour the property and set up surveillance. Thankfully, Harold hacked the therapist’s schedule so both couples didn’t have another therapy session until the next morning. Shaw and Reese had both asked if all therapy sessions could be hacked away completely. Harold just said hopefully for their sakes they found the perpetrators quickly as to prevent any harm to anyone and more therapy sessions. 

It was decided the men would go off under the guise of playing golf to check the outside parameters and see how much they could see of science/nuclear conference. Reese and Fusco dressed in golf attire was sight to behold. 

“I really don’t know what’s more disturbing, these clothes or the tracksuit,” Shaw said upon seeing her fake husband before they departed. 

Reese once again looked like he had a stylist picking out his clothes; his golf ensemble was classy and handsome. Root walked up to him and felt the shirt in between her fingers. She eyed Tinswell’s assistant off at the opposite side of the lobby. So she leaned up and gave Reese a lingering kiss on the check. 

“What the hell was that for?” Shaw couldn’t believe she just said that out loud. “I mean don’t over sell it.” 

“Joan at two o’clock,” said Root, before adding, “have fun sweetie.” 

Shaw did NOT want to admit that hearing Root call Reese sweetie grated on her nerves, in fact it might have grated on her nerves more than when she was called sweetie herself. Shaw was brought of her thought suddenly by yet another huge mistake by her fake husband; she was soon to be widowed. Fusco got an amused look in his eye, he lightly smacked Shaw on the bottom again, “Sammy, don’t spend all our savings in one store okay.” He winked at her before him and Reese walked out of the lobby. 

“I’m almost jealous of Lionel’s hand,” said Root in a highly amused voice, “except I fear he might lose it very soon.”

“Don’t…start,” growled Shaw. 

“We’ve got a lot of rooms to cover in a short amount of time. The Machine just informed me all the scientists are in a meeting, so let’s start there first.” Root took off quickly down one of the corridors with Shaw following her. 

Root and Shaw took the task of installing the surveillance equipment in all the needed rooms. Harold gave them a list of the scientists so they concentrated on those rooms first and the couples at the retreat, the therapist and her assistant. Since there were so many rooms to cover, they got it done to a breezy 120 seconds per room. It was serious business with of course Root’s innuendos and talking in between rooms. Thankfully, Shaw noticed it didn’t seem to slow them down. She had to give it to Root, the woman could multi-task like a big ass boss. 

They were done and walking back to the rooms. “See, we make a pretty perfect team,” Root teased as they finished the last room. “I always thought you would marry someone taller,” the tall brunette smirked at the shorter woman. “He does almost have the hair color I imagined, although a few too many curls.” 

“I always thought you would never marry,” as soon as Shaw said it she scolded herself for the lame response, she could do better than that. 

“I hear Fusco is quite the snorer, like a bull dozer truck meets an amplified foghorn,” Root stared too intensely into Shaw’s eyes as usual. Shaw groaned on in the inside, she did not want to think about tonight and her possible lack of sleep. She imagined he would be a very loud snorer. She wished there was another room. 

“Too bad we’re not sharing, I can be pretty quiet in bed…well, when I’m sleeping,” and of course Root had to invade Shaw’s personal space for this remark, stepping in front of the shorter woman and stopping them in the hallway. 

And there’s the reason why Shaw thought she didn’t want to change roommates. Fusco was a safe bet; she could only imagine how difficult Root would be sharing a room. She had a feeling being secluded with Root would not be a good idea. Root’s flirting had gotten more hardcore recently and she hadn’t done much to stop it or even slow it down. It had been awhile since she had anybody for one or three nights. And as much as she ground her teeth and admitted she might want to be with Root for one or three nights, she knew the tall brunette would not be down for that happening. She just wanted the one or three nights, that was all; no strings attached. Part of her was so curious to see if Root was all talk and no performance delivery. 

“We got something here,” John said over the communication link, Root and Shaw snapped out of their verbal foreplay and listened. 

“What is it Mr. Reese?” asked Finch, who so far had been tucked away in the resort’s maintenance quarters. He had siphoned off a closet to set up all his equipment, so he could monitor all the rooms along with the resort cameras located practically everywhere on the property. The head maintenance supervisor had suddenly won a trip of a lifetime around the world, and Harold got the temp job of replacing him. 

Shaw jumped at the chance to get away from this conversation and to get momentarily away from Root. 

“We’ll start heading your way,” said Shaw with Root following her quickly behind her. 

“Looks like someone set up cameras that are not a part of the resort’s equipment,” Reese and Fusco where way out in the golf course, “all along the perimeter.” 

Harold typed away and confirmed that Reese was indeed right. “I’m going to dig around see if I can find where the location of where these signals and information are being sent.” 

“Are we actually going to get to play golf?” asked Fusco. 

“Yes, that would be a good idea. Continue your cover Mr. Reese,” said Harold before signing off to investigate. 

“But Finch…” it was too late before Reese asked. “Shaw, there’s no need for you two come out here, keep up your covers, maybe hit the beach?” 

Shaw stopped walking and rolled her eyes. “Copy that.” 

“Are you wearing a one piece or two piece suit? I’m hoping for a two piece,” Root drawled while staring at Shaw. 

“Keep dreaming,” Shaw strolled off. 

*****  


Begrudgingly, Shaw did what Reese had suggested, her and Root went down to the beach. It’s not that she didn’t want to be on the beach, she just wasn’t sure she wanted to be on the beach with Root…alone. However, it was already late in the afternoon bordering on evening so catching a beach sunset did sound nice. Not romantic at all, just a beautiful spectacle of nature to witness. 

Root was lounging at the beach in a long chair talking to the older couple at the retreat, a retired pair from the Midwest. She didn’t know how long she would be able to relax at the beach being on The Machine or Harry’s beck and call so she choose a tank top and short shorts to lounge instead of a swimsuit. 

“What does your husband do for a living?” asked the married older woman. 

Before Root could explain Reese’s cover job, she saw Shaw approaching them in a black bikini and she lost all thought process. Her hopes and dreams were coming true, and she couldn’t stop the sunshine beam spreading across her face. 

Shaw noticed the dopey look on Root’s face and decided wearing the bikini was worth it, payback was a loud asshole sometimes. Shaw sauntered over and took the empty chair on the other side of Root. 

“Uh, sorry,” stumbled Root, “What was the question?” Root asked the older married couple. 

“What does your husband do for a living?”

Root really was trying to remember John’s cover story, but her brain was solely focused on Sameen in a bikini next to her. This was one time she was cursing her hormones for behaving like a horny teenage kid. 

“Sorry, to interrupt,” Shaw smiled big at Root and the older couple, “Do you mind…was it Sam? Could you help here with the sunscreen?”

Root gave her an evil squint of her eyes. 

“The sun is about to set, I don’t think it’s really necessary,” said Root in hopes of Shaw or at least Betty agreeing with her. 

“Oh, it’s better to be safe than sorry honey. That cancer is everywhere,” remarked the older married woman. She made a motion for Root to help Shaw with spreading lotion on her scantily clad back. Now normally, Root would more than relish in touching Shaw in any way possible, especially a skin on skin contact; however with pretending to be a straight married woman and in front of an elderly couple, well it was a real mood killer and a job hazard. Root smiled and took the sunscreen from Shaw’s hand. As soon as her hands touched Shaw’s back the shorter woman let out a small gasp (bordering on moan) that made Root’s stomach drop. 

“Sorry, I think I might be burnet a little already. It feels really sensitive,” Shaw was almost laughing. It was quite a lot fun she decided seeing Root so flustered and restrained. Root couldn’t make any suggestive remarks or over the top innuendos, she was bound to her cover. “I need the whole back covered completely, if you don’t mind.” Root rubbed up and down Shaw’s back, concentrating a little too hard. “Oh, could you get under the suit too? I don’t want an unruly tan line…thanks.” Root swallowed up a moan while she lathered up her hands and massaged them into Shaw’s back, going under her swimsuit in parts. The tall brunette wanted nothing more than just to untie the flimsy top and discard it, but she didn’t think Betty and Fred would appreciate that show. 

“You’re so pretty dear. We didn’t get to meet formally yet. I’m Betty and this here is my husband Fred,” the older woman motioned her husband sitting on a beach chair reading the newspaper. 

“Hi, I’m…” Shaw gritted her teeth, “…Sammy. My husband is Lionel, he runs an auto parts store.” 

“And your husband?” asked Betty to Root again. 

“John is in mergers and acquisitions,” Root figured this was close enough to what the fake cover story was since she was still having trouble thinking with her hands on Shaw’s bare skin. Thankfully, she was almost done, and about to hand back over the sunscreen. It was sweet torture for sure, she had to completely force herself not to lean forward and kiss the nape of Sameen’s neck. At this point, she wasn’t entirely sure Shaw would object. And even if the former assassin did, it was worth a shot. It was extremely hard for Root to act like it was nothing to have this kind of physical contact with Shaw and not show any outwardly signs. She hoped the older husband kept reading his paper and that the wife was oblivious. 

“Can you do the arms too?” Shaw turned her head so she wasn’t facing Root or Betty and Fred. She was having too much fun getting under Root’s skin. 

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” said Root as she tried to hand the bottle back to Shaw. 

“Please,” Shaw turned around and batted her eyes at Root. It was pretty awesome watching Root’s whole face get flushed and eyes get little by little more smoldering the more she had to keep touching Shaw in a polite way. 

“You’re being really smart, you got to take care of that pretty skin,” said Betty while nodding. 

Root put some more sunscreen in her hand, rubbed them together for dramatic effect and leaned in to put one hand on each one of Shaw’s arms. Betty did seem pretty oblivious as she started talking about her kids and grandkids, Root kept asking her questions in hopes of distracting the woman. Root knew if she were guy, she would probably have trouble leaving the chair any time soon and a towel would be helpful. At one point when Betty turned away, Root took the chance to dig her nails into Shaw’s arm. 

“Keep that up and I’ll ask you to do my legs and I'll make sure Betty agrees,” smirked Shaw. Root had no doubt she could probably convince the older woman to agree with her with some inane excuse like a bad back or something. 

Root retracted her slight black fingernails. As soon as Betty finished explaining her family tree, she said her and Fred had to go get ready for dinner. Root was actually relieved from the break from touching Shaw, because she wanted to touch her a whole lot more and knowing she couldn’t was almost painful. She scooted up to layback in her chair and face toward the ocean. Root and Shaw were left alone watching the sunset. 

“You have to admit, this doesn’t suck,” said Root while glancing over to Shaw who didn’t turn her gaze from the sunset. 

“It would be even better in peace and quiet,” said Shaw without glancing over. 

The two of them sat and enjoyed the Maui sunset. It was actually Shaw that broke the silence a few minutes later, as the sun was almost completely gone out of view. 

“Why aren’t you wearing a swimsuit?” asked Shaw.

“Why are you disappointed?”

“No,” Shaw tried her hardest to brush off her actual disappointment, “just an observation.”

“I wanted to be ready in case The Machine or Harold needed anything,” said Root while watching the tip of the sun as it vanished into the ocean. 

“Nerd,” said Shaw concentrating on the ocean waves. 

*****  


When they all four arrived for dinner the resort restaurant they were surprised they were all seated separately, one couple per table. 

“Maybe Dr. Tinswell thinks all the couples need some alone time,” said Reese as he held the chair for Root to sit down. Reese and Fusco looked very tan from playing nearly a full game of golf without any sunscreen on. 

Fusco and Shaw sat down at their table with way less fanfare, more like an old married couple. 

“Tsk, tsk Lionel. You didn’t pull out the chair for your wife,” Root said discreetly through the communication link while winking at Shaw. 

“Or maybe we make a more believable couple because we don’t go for all that fakey nicety stuff,” said Shaw. 

“Shaw you do realize that you just said that you and Lionel make a believable couple,” said Reese with a slight smile on his face. 

“Uh, yeah that’s because we’re better than you two,” said Shaw while pretending to read her menu. 

“I second that, I always knew I would be great at undercover work,” said Fusco, he fist pumped Shaw and they toasted each other with their waters. Reese and Root looked on at their co-workers/friends and then back to each other. 

“Well, I think Joan is pretty enamored with us,” Root said while pretending to read her menu. 

“That’s only because she wants a threesome with you two,” Shaw tore off part of a piece of bread and shoved it in her mouth. 

“Not something to be too proud of there Barbie and Ken,” said Fusco while chomping on his own piece of bread. 

“She does not,” Root seemed almost appalled at the idea, so did Reese. “We are an ideal pair,” Root reached over and put her hand over Reese’s much to his slight grimace. 

“Not buying it Reese, you suck,” Shaw tore off another piece a little too strongly while keeping an eye on Root and Reese. 

Reese smirked a little then lifted up Root’s hand and kissed it laggardly while smoothly rubbing a few circles on top before holding it and resting it on the table, keeping their hands intertwined. “Beat that Shaw.” 

“Lionel, don’t even think about it,” Shaw knew they might have lost this round but her and Fusco would win the next one. Plus, she was already one up on Root. 

*****

Fusco’s snoring was pretty unbearable indeed as it turned out. Shaw could sleep through a lot from all her years of travel and service, however Fusco’s snoring was a beast all unto it’s self. She had to see if Finch could find another room for her, or tent or something. Her wax earplugs and noise canceling earphones were no match for Fusco. She threw back the blanket on the couch, grabbed her hoodie and left the room. 

Reese opened the door with a tired look on his face; Shaw pushed her way into the room. The room was at least three times the size of her and Fusco’s, with two bedrooms, a living room and kitchen. 

“Your room is massive,” said a surprised Shaw. “What the hell?”

“You and Lionel don’t have the same love nest,” smiled Reese. 

“Fusco and I have to share one freakin room and you two have suite? You each have your own bedroom?”

“Maybe your small space, gives you more bonding time with Fusco,” Reese said as he watched Shaw survey the room. 

“I don’t bond. I’m staying here tonight. Root can sleep in your room,” even as she said it, Shaw knew she did not want Root sleeping in Reese’s room. Her brain already kept replaying their little scene from dinner and she didn’t like watching it. She didn’t like seeing Reese kiss Root’s hand even if she knew Reese barely tolerated the former hacker and vice versa at times.  


“No way Shaw, there’s a couch or you can share with Root. Harold said everything is calm right now, so I’m going to take a nap,” Reese headed to his room then added, “I’m sure she doesn’t bite, unless you want her to,” said with a sarcastic tone and a wink in his eyes. Reese had a pretty good feeling that Shaw would eventually cave one day and admit she had feelings or something close to feelings for the former killer for hire. He knew already that Root was head over heals for the former government assassin. He noticed every time Shaw came into a room that Root only had eyes for her, even sometimes when they were on a mission. Root’s total adoration for Shaw could possibly get them into trouble one day. And quite possibly all of them killed. Shaw wasn’t much better, she might not outwardly reciprocate the stares and the lingering glances, but over time without fail her number one question whenever the tall brunette wasn’t around was always, ‘Where’s Root?’ It was a question he was growing tired of, the two very intense women needed to just call or text each other locations. Communicate in some capacity to each other and not through him and other team members. 

“No way. Root can take the couch,” Shaw eyed the couch then looked over to Root’s bedroom. 

“I can’t wait to see you make that happen. I’ll make popcorn,” Reese said with a confident grin. He turned went into his room and closed the door. 

Shaw walked over to Root’s room; she listened at the closed door. She could hear the shower running so she opened the door and walked in. Shaw spread out on the bed, letting the tiredness of the travel and the therapy session wash over here. 

Root was more than pleasantly surprised when she came out of her bathroom wrapped only in a towel and her hair wet to find Shaw sprawled out on her bed. 

“Well, this certainly is a welcome sight. Literally a dream come true,” Root’s face was beaming. She had no idea what brought Shaw to room let alone her bed but she was thanking the snoring gods tonight on their gifted son of Fusco. Shaw had her hands behind her head wearing only her blank tank top and black boy shorts. Root’s eyes took the time to ravish everything they could see of one Sameen Shaw which was quite a lot. When Shaw had taken off her coat for the first time in front of her at that hotel, her hormones and heart started raging and haven’t since slowed down. 

“You can take the couch tonight,” Shaw was not prepared for Root to have exited the bathroom only in a towel. She glanced over fleetingly at Root, she did not want to linger or exchange looks with her. She could already feel her face getting flush and she tried hard to shut down her whole body from reacting. She was pissed her body had this type of reaction to a near naked Root. She thought they had a deal, no Root thoughts whatsoever. Her brain was on board, her raging hormones were renegade that wanted nothing more to tear the towel off Root pull her down on the bed. Damn hormones. Hormones could be real assholes sometimes. 

“Not sure how you came to that conclusion since you’re the one that crawled into my bed,” Root said in a husky voice.

“Fusco made a rule about seniority and beds, you were the last one to join the team so you get the couch,” even as she said this Shaw could tell her voice was wavering. 

“There’s enough room for us to share and besides I’m all ready for bed,” Root walked over to the bed and moved her hand to drop the towel. Shaw caught the movement and very quickly turned her head just before the towel fell to the floor and Root slipped into the bed nude. Shaw jumped off the bed as if it was on fire and in way it was since her skin felt like it was getting scorched. Root eyed Shaw’s tank top and boy shorts, “Do you usually sleep in so much?” To say the question was said suggestively was a vast understatement. 

Shaw made a huge huff and moved towards the open door. She then turned around and took one of the pillows from the bed while giving a fierce look to Root. Shaw slammed the door on the way out. 

“Goodnight Sweetie,” said a somewhat disappointed Root with a smirk on her face. She guessed they were probably even now or maybe never.


	3. Hot Yoga Therapy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can’t believe here’s another chapter of fluff. Too much fluff? Plot, is plot needed? Hopefully, more fun as Team Machine attends a couples retreat to possibly save some nearby numbers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading, kudos and comments! Hopefully, it’s still slightly in character despite possibly too much fluff. Apologies for mistakes and for not knowing anything about yoga!

Shaw woke up on the couch with a crick in her neck and her bladder pressuring her for immediate action. She looked around the suite and noticed the only bathrooms were inside the bedrooms. At first she choose John’s room but then decided it would be more fun to wake up Root loudly and harshly. She walked over and opened the door slowly. She could see Root still completely past out from sleep, having kicked off most of the covers on the bed and appeared to be spooning a pillow hard. To Shaw’s surprise the tall brunette was actually wearing something resembling pajamas. The sleeping hacker had a look on her face that wasn’t seen very often, sort of peaceful. Shaw shook her head to stop herself from staring, she would never live it down if Root woke up and saw her watching her sleep. Never. Friends or frenemies or co-workers, whatever they were don’t watch each other sleep; well Root might but she’s weird. Shaw went into the bathroom quietly, changing her mind on waking Root since her co-worker didn’t ever seem to get enough sleep. 

When Shaw exited the bathroom, again trying to be very quiet she could feel eyes on her. She looked over to Root who was sitting up in bed smiling at her. Root was holding onto a pillow, half her smile hidden in the pillow. 

“I feel honored you choose my bathroom over John’s,” smirked Root in a purple tank top and colorful pajama pants. 

“It was closer, don’t get excited,” Shaw said while crossing her arms over her chest, “interesting choice of pajama bottoms.” Shaw looked over at Root’s pajama bottoms with a Grumpy cat cartoon all over them. 

“The cat reminds me of someone…” Root smiled slyly at Shaw. It was too damn early and lack of caffeine early for the hacker to be so perky thought Shaw. 

“I thought you slept…you know au natural?” Shaw couldn’t believe this question got past her brain and her lips let it slide out too. Damn lack of caffeine again she cursed. 

“I didn’t think it was prudent to be sleeping nude with John a few feet away and 12 numbers at risk and Harry or The Machine calling at any minute.” Root got up from the bed and started walking across the room towards Shaw. 

“I think nude might be better than those pajama bottoms,” Shaw cringed that did not come out the way she intended and Root’s face lit up, “I MEANT those are ugly ass pajama bottoms. Like really embarrassing. Even for you.” 

“Noted. Primary Asset Shaw prefers me pantless,” Root’s huge beaming smile was too much for Shaw, who in turn shook her head, turned away and left the room. As soon as she exited John was standing in the kitchen getting some water with raised eyebrows directed at her. 

“I was going to the bathroom…I didn’t spend all night in there…with her,” Shaw walked over to the kitchen to search for coffee or anything. “And those hideous pajama bottoms.”

“You don’t have to be so discreet Sameen. John doesn’t mind sharing his wife,” Reese raised his eyebrows again. Root sauntered over to the kitchen and sat on one of the bar stools to the counter while watching Shaw and Reese. 

“Yeah, Shaw. In fact if you could take over the conjugal visits it would be appreciated,” Reese did his sly smile to Shaw while she scowled back at him. 

“Sure Reese, you can take over mine with Fusco. I believe we have hot tub therapy tomorrow so you can soak with him and all his body hair in 100 degree water,” Shaw grabbed one of the water bottles and took several big gulps.

“What?” Both Reese and Root said at the same time somewhat surprised looks on their faces towards Shaw. 

“Did neither one of you read the therapy schedule for the rest of the week?” Shaw had a devious look on her face; she loved knowing more stuff than her teammates at times. 

“I was kind of hoping we could wrap things up today,” said Reese with a grimace. 

“Ditto. Although, I don’t mind the scenery,” said Root as her eyes traveled up and down Shaw’s black tank top and boy shorts. If eyes could drool, there would have been a puddle on the counter. “The beach is gorgeous.” Root’s eyes never left Shaw, who in return rolled her eyes and turned to Reese. “Shaw let me know if you want to hit it again…the beach that is.”

Shaw had a quota for Root innuendos, come-ons and flirts in one day and the hacker was nearing the maximum and it wasn’t even 8am yet. So she took another water bottle and headed towards the door. 

“Fusco is actually better company than you two,” Shaw grabbed her hoodie and slammed the hotel door heading back to her room. 

Reese turned to Root, “Have you heard from Harold? For a twelve number gig, it seems too quiet,” asked Root to Reese who actually had found some coffee in the cabinets and was brewing a small pot. 

“Agree,” Reese tapped his finger to his ear. “Finch are you there? What’s going on?” 

“Good morning, Mr. Reese. Everything is under control at the moment.” Harold seemed out of breath. “We had a slight hiccup during the night but it’s been taken care.”

Reese and Root both looked at each other concerned. 

“Finch, what’s going on?” Reese asked in a very worried tone. A tone that mirrored Root’s worried expression. 

“Sorry, John didn’t mean to alarm you. There was a shipment of spoiled salmon that was almost served to the scientists, but thankfully I hacked into the hotel’s supplier system and had it diverted,” Harold seemed to regain his calmness. 

Again, Reese and Root looked at each concerned expressions on their faces, now with a little confusion mixed in. 

“Finch, are you telling me you think the threat to the 12 numbers was bad fish?” asked Reese. 

“No, Mr. Reese I think that might have been a tactic to slow down the proceedings,” Harold seemed distracted again, “Oh, it appears one of my employees from the hotel needs me. I need to keep up my cover. I’ll be in touch. Make sure you attend your therapy sessions today as your cover.” 

Before Reese and Root could object the communication line was cut off. Reese grimaced so hard Root felt like she could feel it, although she was feeling her own. She didn’t know if she could take another sixty minutes of a group mediation session. However, it was really nice getting to spend this extra time with Shaw without bullets or explosives swirling around them. She felt it was promising that the compact asset slept in their room last night, even if it was the couch. Maybe if she kept chipping away at the tough exterior, it would lead to getting to the tougher interior. She had no illusions about Sameen, she knew some people wouldn’t be drawn to someone who would possible never show emotion or feelings back to them. She didn’t care, she hadn’t cared since she first read Shaw’s file. At first, she thought Shaw would be a worthy partner, now over the years though as she had gone through so many changes and learned so much. Root was beginning to feel she would never be worthy enough for Sameen. Shaw was a hero; a true blood hero in every sense of the word. Root only learned the value of human life within the last few years. Even though she still pursued Shaw, she was scared that one day the woman might actually take her up on the offer. Then again, she knew it would probably only be temporary and that might be enough. For the life she had lead so far, a good death would be an honor. Such as one night or one moment with the woman she loved would be an honor. 

Reese snapped Root out of her thoughts. “I might have to feign food poisoning on this next thing?” He handed Root today’s schedule. 

“Oh c’mon, John. Fusco alone will make this worth attending,” Root almost laughed at the thought. And she realized she might have some fun with Sameen on this session. She went to change her clothes to get ready. 

*****

As Shaw entered her hotel room, Fusco was sitting on the couch eating a bagel with a cup of coffee holding the schedule. 

“Did you read this crazy thing?” Fusco said in between bites. 

“Yeah, I did and that’s why I’m waiting to eat after the session,” Shaw couldn’t contain a small grin on her face as she looked at her partner’s discomfort reading what they had to do next. “Hope you brought a few track suits, because you might tear one to shreds today. And I hope you’re good at holding in farts.” 

“Very funny. Have a good night with your girlfriend?” Fusco couldn’t help rib Shaw on Root’s attraction to her. He had seen Cocoa Puffs flirt constantly and openly with his short partner but never knew if the feelings were mutual. He was surprised when he woke up this morning and found Shaw gone. 

Shaw went into the bathroom and slammed the door shut fierce enough to shake the wall. Then she opened it again in a huff, “Your snoring wakes the dead. I saw actual zombies roaming the grounds last night. Reese has a freakin two-bedroom suite over there with a large couch. It’s so big you don’t even see the cochlear cuckoo for your information.” She went back and slammed the door again very loudly. 

Fusco laughed to himself, he could see sometimes why Coca Puffs did things to annoy Shaw; he had to admit it was pretty funny seeing the petite woman all huffy. 

When they were both finally dressed they headed down to the assigned room for the next group therapy session. 

Fusco and Shaw entered the room to find the older couple and the younger couple in full on yoga gear, stretching out on their mats. Fusco and Shaw stared at each other, this they could agree on, this sucks. Joan the assistant approached them. 

“You two can take these mats,” said Joan motioning for Fusco and Shaw to take two mats in the back of the room. Which didn’t go unnoticed by Shaw.

Reese and Root entered the room followed by the middle-aged couple. Joan of course made a beeline for Team Rocket and started fawning over them. She directed them to two open mats. Root spied the mat right in front of Shaw and headed towards that one. 

“Sam, Dr. Tinswell wanted you up in the front,” Joan motioned for Root to move to a different mat. 

“I’m not big on being in the front of the class,” Root was determined to take the mat in front of Shaw, it was the only part of this charade she was looking forward to. 

Reese moved to the mat in front of Fusco, he noticed his loose fitting tracksuit and nodded. “Nice suit Lionel.” 

Fusco noticed Reese’s more appropriate yoga outfit with a form fitting sweat absorbent fabric and stretchy loose pants. He whispered to Reese, “Hey, that’s not fair. Did Cuckoo Chanel pick those out?” 

“It’s part of my cover,” Reese whispered back, then also leaned into Root, “Why couldn’t The Machine also get Lionel the anti-stink shirt, it would help us all.” Root just shrugged. 

Shaw kind of hated to admit she didn’t like seeing Reese and Root all buddy buddy. Reese was her buddy, not Root’s. And what the hell was with Root’s yoga outfit. Root had on a light blue tank top with black yoga short shorts instead of pants. Shaw thought to herself, shorts again really? She realized she had never seen the hacker in shorts before and now she had seen her wear them twice in about a 20 hour time frame. Were her legs really that long? Root’s legs went on for days and even nights it appeared. She scolded herself when she looked away from Root’s legs right into the hacker’s mischievous eyes. So Root had to give her one of her trademark winks, which most of the time involved just actual blinking. Okay, Shaw was willing to admit the hacker was pretty hot by generic standards. Well, maybe even above average in some situations, like in this yoga outfit. Shaw couldn’t help but think that Root wore such little on purpose, plus positioning herself right in front of her also screamed strategic move. Shaw looked down at her black yoga shorts and form fitting workout shirt and decided to change her outfit slightly. She took off her shirt to just wear her free flow sports bra which did not go unnoticed by Root, in fact she thought she might have heard a small gasp come from the taller woman. Score one for me thought Shaw. 

“Namaste to you Sameen,” Root said while blatantly staring at Shaw’s chest. Root thought that if she were a dude her obnoxious leering might get her thrown out or a hard punch from Shaw herself. However, just before she thought anyone besides Reese might notice she looked away. It was pointless to hide from Reese or Finch, they both knew her feelings for Shaw. She could never tell if Shaw really knew or thought it was just a show to annoy her. Or the third more painful option, Shaw did know but never wanted to reciprocate in any way or disliked the notion altogether. She dashed the thought from her mind because that was a train of thought that wasn’t fun. Her gut did always whisper that the third option wasn’t true, at all. Root knew she had to turn around and face the front but it was so very hard to tear her eyes away from Shaw’s lean, muscular, very toned form. And now that the primary asset had taken off her shirt to just be in her sports bra, Root felt like it was getting unbearably hot in the room even though they hadn’t started class yet. 

Dr. Tinswell entered the room in a conservative yoga outfit with a flowing robe on. “Welcome everyone,” she bowed to everyone. “Are you ready for hot yoga?”

“Hot yoga? What the hell is that?” asked Fusco with a pained facial expression. 

“Probably you’re worst nightmare Lionel,” whispered Shaw. Shaw thought to herself that the actual room temperature was getting hotter, she was very glad to hear that and realize it wasn’t because of Root who was bending over now and looking up at her from between her legs. 

Dr. Tinswell started with the tree pose, which was pretty lucky for the four people who didn’t want to be doing any poses period. Next up, was the cat pose, which didn’t look good on Fusco. And Reese looked pretty awkward too. 

Shaw watched Root get on her knees and for no other reason because she knew she was being watched pushed her ass high in the air and straight towards Shaw’s direction. Root then turned her head to sneak a look at Shaw and was pretty pleased the petite primary asset was indeed watching her. Shaw then put her head down on the mat shaking her head to block out Root completely, good thing about this particular pose. Next up, was the boat pose, which was also proving extremely difficult for Lionel. And Reese just winced looking at the others around him doing the pose. Root and Shaw were by far the best yoga practitioners. Reese watched both of them go from pose to pose with ease and grace. Although, he did sense they were trying to outdo each other, some unspoken competition between the two women. 

“Everyone now turn over for the pigeon pose,” instructed Dr. Tinswell. 

“This is my worst nightmare along with Fusco’s,” said Reese, he looked like he had reached a cutting off point. Reese tapped his earpiece, “Finch, what’s your ETA? This is a waste of time…” he said discreetly as not to heard by any else besides the three other people near him also dying to get out of the sweltering room. 

Before Reese could finish his sentence Finch’s voice came over all their communication lines, “No, Mr. Reese. Please, stay in class. I’ve just uncovered that Mr. Roth has a shady background at best and might be undercover as well.” Reese looked around the hotter than hell room. 

“Which one is Mr. Roth?” asked Reese scanning the room. 

“Caucasian, 40s,” Finch continued on. 

“The middle aged couple,” said Root softly, gesturing her head discreetly towards the couple. 

“Mrs. Roth had an encrypted past for some reason that I finally dug up that included several nefarious things. It’s imperative you keep an eye on them,” continued Finch while all four co-workers groaned inwardly. “Mr. Reese you stay in class to watch over them, they are the biggest lead so far,” said Finch while Reese looked very skeptical, “And I hear yoga is good for bad backs, I think both you and Lionel could benefit from that as well.” 

“Everyone the locust pose now,” voiced Dr. Tinswell loudly, while taking a glance around the room. She called out to Fusco, “Lionel, that looks more like the cobra pose, you need to lift your legs as well.” The detective groaned out loudly in pain as he tried to lift his legs then it was followed by a loud release of flatulence. His teammates all had terrible times controlling a fit of giggles. Even Reese. 

“Don’t be embarrassed everyone, we all need release. Everyone release,” said Dr. Tinswell as she waved her hands in the air. 

“Please, no everyone hold in their farts,” said Shaw to herself. 

Root’s legs were so long that they were dangerously close to hitting Shaw in the face. And it was extremely hard for Shaw to concentrate on holding the locust pose with her arms and feet in the air when Root’s feet were nearly touching her face. Plus, that meant that she had a direct view straight down to Root’s center of annoyance, her vagina. It was like starring into the sun, it was hurting Shaw’s eyes and not to mention overloading all her senses. 

Dr. Tinswell went over to help the older couple with their poses, Root took the opportunity to very quickly position herself lower on her mat so that she was clearly invading Shaw’s personal and yoga space. She had to hold down a giggle when Shaw’s head became nearly trapped by her legs. And Shaw’s facial expression was an explosion of pure annoyance. The petite primary asset was a very worthy opponent for her quick draw of grabbing Root’s ankle and gripping it firmly. 

“If you don’t scoot up I’m going to break one of your toes,” Shaw growled out, while she lowered her hand to sharply pull and pinch Root’s pinky toe.

Root did have to hold down a yelp, as Shaw knew how to break a bone precisely and swiftly. She regretfully scooted back up to her proper mat position; and just as Dr. Tinswell was calling out for a new pose. 

“Excellent work everyone. Now we are going to work on couple poses,” Dr. Tinswell motioned for the couples to face each other. “Let’s start with the double wide boat.” 

“What does that mean,” asked Fusco as he turned to Shaw, who shook her head and put her hand to her face to lightly pinch her nose in frustration. 

“Here sit down, open your legs, outstretch your arms,” Shaw instructed Fusco to sit in front of her. She shook her head when she saw Fusco panting, drenched in sweat with his legs barely open. Fusco looked like he was about to have a heat stroke. “Lionel, spread your legs further a part.” Shaw held up a finger in Root’s direction but didn’t look at her. “Do not speak Root. Do not say a word to me.” 

Reese and Root followed Shaw and Fusco’s lead. Both fake couples sat facing each other, legs completely wide open with bare feet touching, then arms outstretched to hold onto each other. 

Dr. Tinswell started in again on instructions, “Look deeply into your mate’s eyes. Savor every moment in their presence.” The doctor waved her arms in some dramatic fashion.

Reese raised his eyebrows to Root, she was indeed staring deeply into his eyes. “You do have really nice eyes John,” Root said with a kind smile, no joke intended. 

“And you have long legs Root,” Reese smirked to Root. 

“No shit,” Shaw chastised herself for saying that aloud. Root winked at Shaw who rolled her eyes. Shaw then focused on her partner. “Lionel, your hands are the sweatiest hands I have ever seen or touched in my life.” Shaw did throw Fusco an appreciative smile; she admitted she did like the guy. 

“Is that a compliment Shorty?” Fusco was so over this hot yoga business but he did manage a tired smile, “You got some pretty tough butchy arms there Buttercup.”

“Butchy being the key word,” said Root as she leaned over to Shaw pulling Reese with her in the process, who almost lost his balance. Reese yanked Root back to her position. 

“We are going to try something harder now,” said Dr. Tinswell, “I’m going to ask the two best yoga people in here to come demonstrate, if they will so kindly oblige. Sam and Sammy, would you mind?”

Okay, so Root thought that maybe her and Shaw’s not so secret yoga competition wasn’t so secret. She was kind of killing herself to out pose Sameen. And now they were being called to the front of the class, Shaw was going to kill her later; and as if on cue Shaw just shot her an eye dagger. 

“Could you both illustrate the double standard forward bend pose together please,” said doctor while giving them enough space. 

Root remembered this pose from having to be a yoga instructor once for a mission. Root thought having her buttocks pressed firmly against Shaw’s was going to be a slice of euphoria; but payback from the petite primary asset was going to be rough, possibly deadly. 

Shaw held back a massive eye roll as she turned around and put her back against Root’s, feeling skin on skin on their shoulders and legs. She then bent down to glare at Root who also bent down. Both of them with their heads between their legs, their asses pressed so hard against each other Shaw thought she could almost feel Root adding a little motion for some friction. Yup, she was going to end Root later. They clasped their arms together and stared at each other. Shaw glared at Root, who couldn’t help but smile back. The temperature in the room seem to spike up substantially for the two women.

“Great job you two,” said the doctor while admiring the pose, “And now show everyone the down dog bow pose. If you know that one, I can illustrate with Sam.” Dr. Tinswell moved in front of Root but Shaw grabbed the hacker’s arm and pulled her away. 

Root and Shaw exchanged a look, a mutual ‘what the fuck’ between them but directed at the doctor. “You’re stronger, I think you need to be the bottom,” whispered Root to Shaw without even a hint of innuendo which was completely shocking to the petite primary asset. Shaw bent over once again, heels flat on the mat, palms flat on the mat; she was ready for Root for a better word to mount her. Root decided to play dumb for a second and positioned herself to blanket Shaw facing her and she almost had full body contact until the doctor told her she had to turn over. Begrudgingly, Root turned over and arched her back to lean over Shaw. Shaw held herself solid while Root got into position, which wasn’t easy. She finally positioned her back over Shaw’s ass with the back of her head just below, rested in between the back of Shaw’s strong thighs. Root then reached out and grabbed her feet with her hands.

Reese and Fusco stood in amazement while watching their two co-workers tackle a hard pose which essentially created a giant human pretzel.

“They’re both nuts,” said Fusco, he has happy for the floor show since he got a break and got his breathing under control again. His clothes were completely drenched. 

As soon as class was over Dr. Tinswell and Joan chatted up Root while the rest of class was able to slip out. By the time she made it back to her and John’s room she could hear both showers running. She had to smile even though she was frustrated, she was happy to know that Shaw was naked in her shower; although she really had to go the bathroom. She checked the door, it was locked; she knew Shaw would lock it. However, it was an easy pick. Root slipped into the steam filled bathroom and tore off her yoga shorts. Thankfully, Shaw didn’t notice her until she was already in progress. 

“WHAT THE HELL ROOT!” hissed Shaw, “Get out!”

“Sameen, once again this my bathroom. What are you doing here?”

“Fusco grabbed the shower first and I wanted to get that yoga stench off me as soon as possible,” Shaw stood dripping wet naked with her back towards Root. “Root? Are you actually peeing right now?” This was too much over sharing for one compact Persian sociopath. Usually, Shaw was unflappable in any situation even including nudity, but with Root it was always much harder to maintain any kind of coolness. 

“Sorry, I really had to go. Reese is taking a shower right now too, and well I would rather see you naked…”

“Root get out!”

“I can’t at the moment, I drank two bottles of water after hot yoga,” Root tried her most reasonable tone with Shaw. 

“Root! I don’t want to see you pee.” 

“Then stay turned around Shaw.”

Shaw was beyond annoyed; she wanted Root out of the bathroom right now. 

Shaw grabbed the removable showerhead and had an idea. She started spraying herself down, going lower and lower down her body until she reached between her legs where she practically mounted the showerhead. She let out a little moan for show, although it only take about ten seconds and this wouldn’t just be show any longer. She lightly turned her head to sneak a glance at Root, who was still on the porcelain throne but the hacker’s mouth was hanging open and she had fire in her eyes. Shaw turned her head back around and leaned her forehead against the tile wall. She then heard the shower door open. She spun around in a flash and directed the showerhead right at Root’s face. 

Root stood there stunned for a moment while water blasted in her face then she grabbed for the showerhead cord and pulled hard on it. Root didn’t mean to throw Shaw completely off her balance but it was slippery, she began to fall and Root reached out to catch her. Shaw fell straight into Root’s arms instead of smashing her head on the tile wall. Water spraying everywhere from the dangling showerhead; both women squinting amongst the showering water to look into each other’s eyes. Root stared hungrily at Shaw’s lips and then Shaw herself returned the same look. Just as Root was about to crash their lips together, not kissing Shaw was torture; even if it she got actual torture for doing it. Suddenly, there was a massive pounding on the door. 

“Finch needs us now!” yelled Reese.


	4. Sameen Shaw. Shark Wrangler.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so very much for reading, kudos and comments! Only thing that keeps this fluff going. :-) So not sure about this one, but decided to post anyway. Apologies for mistakes. And apologies for attempting to write an action scene, thought it might be good practice and prove not to write action stuff again.

“Shaw! We need to go!” Reese yelled again.  


The bathroom door flung open, slamming into the wall and Shaw stormed out; mostly dressed, clothes sticking to her body like wet glue and with wild wet disheveled hair. Then Root stepped out completely soaked still in her yoga gear, looking very disheveled as well. Reese had a pretty surprised expression on his face; he raised his eyebrows to both of them. Shaw kept rushing past Reese while grabbing her hair and pulling it into a ponytail.  


“NOT what you think,” barked Shaw to Reese. “And no peanut gallery comments from you. At all.” Shaw turned around and seethed at Root, who in return just smiled. Root couldn’t believe that just moments before she actually held a naked Shaw in her arms. This was probably the best mission ever. She thought she would have to remind Shaw a few times that she saved her from cracking her head open, she saved her while she was naked. Naked was a big part of the story, and one she planned to tell over and over to Shaw, with probably much assured annoyed vehemence from the petite firecracker. Not to mention that less than hour ago her and Shaw were so tightly wrapped around each other’s bodies in an intense yoga position, definitely best mission ever. Or at least the most fun mission ever. Root’s body felt like wild electric currents flooding her body when her mind kept flashing back to the yoga positions and especially the shower incident. She felt that her motherboard could be overloaded at any minute in the best possible way.  


Before leaving the room Root grabbed a gun from one of her bags and put in the back of her yoga pants, which didn’t conceal anything. “Remind me not to wear yoga pants while working.”  


Reese walked swiftly to catch up with Shaw with Root following. “Where are we going?” Shaw asked Reese while also having trouble concealing her weapon in her yoga outfit; she cursed herself for not going back to her room to get another change of clothes.  


“Finch only gave me coordinates that’s all.” Reese tapped his ear. “Fusco? Meet us out back near the beach.”  


“Copy that,” said Fusco.  


All four of them reached the back of the resort; they all stood on the edge of the beach, looking around for Finch or for anyone in distress.  


Root tilted her head, “These are longitude and latitude coordinates. They are about a mile or two that way,” Root pointed to the ocean.  


“We’re going to need a boat then,” Reese said while scanning the beach and his eyes falling upon a dock with several options. All four teammates headed toward the resort rental dock.  


The resort had about every water vehicle to rent for fun from jet skies, to motor boats, to water skiing, parasailing and even water jet packs.  
“Looks like we got several options,” Shaw said while looking up and down and getting a wicked grin on her face.  


“I’ll take the boat,” Reese locked in on a fast speed boat.  


“I’ll take a jet ski,” Root eyed the jet ski while glancing over at Shaw, wondering if she would want to ride with her.  


“Boring choice,” Shaw snorted without looking at Root. She was livid that Root not only invaded her shower but had the balls to enter her shower, what a perv. Not to mention, the tall nerd was probably going to hold it over her that she somehow saved her; which was untrue. And that they’re closer now because they shared some kind of dorky domestic thing as fluid evacuation; thank goodness not bowel evacuation.  


“Got anything better?” asked Root while slightly leering at Shaw who did by the way still have the skimpy yoga outfit and now was mostly wet from it putting it on drenched and in a hurry.  


“Reese you drive, I’m going to get a higher vantage point,” Shaw turned to Reese to nod to him and he nodded back to her. She then moved towards the rental counter.  


A guy at the rental counter approached the four intense looking people, “Who’s ready for some adventure?” Reese, Shaw, Fusco and Root just stared blankly at him. The guy thought to himself, tough crowd. “Can I interest anyone in a ride on the water jet pack? It will be the most thrilling ride of your life.”  


Shaw whispered to Reese, “More than parachuting out of a nose diving plane into combat fire,” Reese returned a smile and nod to the former Marine.  


“Also, known as the hydro powered jetovator, you can be flying over the ocean like a bird or Superman,” the rental equipment guy looked between the four people, two of whom where giving him pretty intense scowls, one giving him a somewhat pleasant smile and the last one looking confused.  


Fusco’s face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning while staring at the water jet pack. “Now that sounds like a blast.”  


“Have fun with that Fusco,” Shaw snorted. She had seen the water jet packs a few times in action and they were crazy hard to control. Fusco was about to be in for a wild ride and probably a few hard face plants in the water.  


Within minutes the rental equipment guy had all four of the team decked out on extracurricular water vehicles and all four of them were speeding off, well except for Fusco who was flailing around with the water jet pack. Fusco looked like a fish flopping around, he was spurting off in several different directions. The detective was controlling his screams for his own pride’s sake, as he shot up in the sky and then repeatedly slammed back down into the ocean.  


The boat and the jet ski were speeding off in the same direction. Reese driving the boat and every so often looking up and behind him to check on Shaw parasailing, she was attached to the boat like a long floating umbilical cord and gliding high and above. Shaw was about 500 feet, no more than 800 feet high above the speeding boat. This did give her a better viewpoint to find out the threat, Shaw scanned over the ocean in every way to find whatever Harold had sent them out to find and save. She was positive her ‘flying’ experience was going better than Fusco’s, she really hoped somehow The Machine was getting footage of Fusco being a water crash dummy for the water jet pack.  


Shaw then spotted what she thought they were looking for out here in the ocean, there was a tiny rowboat that looked lost and adrift in the sea with a man and woman in the boat. She then also noticed there were two sharks circling the small rowboat.  


“Hey Reese, I think I see the threat. There are two sharks circling that rowboat up ahead. And it looks like the engine is dead. They don’t look to have any oars.” Shaw hated to admit but this parasailing was kind of fun. And it was also kind of amusing to see Reese and Root below her.  


“Copy that Shaw, headed their way.” Reese sped up the boat.  


“I think I get there faster,” said Shaw as she pulled out one of her knives and cut the line tethering the parachute to the boat. She glided for a seconds, she aimed for the boat the best she could. When she felt like she was close enough, she then cut the parachute cord dropping dozens of feet into the ocean. Landing right in the middle of the circling sharks, scaring them off momentarily. The man and the woman in the boat looked completely shocked.  


“Shaw! What are you doing?” yelled out Root speeding that way in the jet ski.  


“Gonna have to agree with Root on this one Shaw,” Reese said concerned for the safety of his teammate as he slowed down the boat to reach Shaw and the stranded little boat.  


Root stood up on the jet ski while still driving and brought up a gun to aim at one of the sharks as she got closer; this action also scared the couple as they crouched in the boat covering their heads. Shaw saw this action and yelled at Root, “Root! If you shoot the shark I’ll never speak to you again,” Shaw hoped that Root could hear her.  


Root was shocked when Shaw yelled at her. What? She knew Shaw loved animals but this might be taking it too far. However, she knew this was a way more serious threat than ending her or throttling her or shooting her, Shaw meant business on this one.  


“Shaw! There are two sharks circling you.”  


“Sharks are endangered. And they’re cool. Don’t you dare shoot!” Shaw was about to pull herself up into the little boat when one of the sharks swam fast up to her.  


“Uh, Shaw. You might be endangered.” Yelled out an exasperated Root, by this point she was almost upon the boat and Shaw.  


Shaw rolled her eyes, even though a massive shark was headed towards her. Root was breathing heavy, hoping she was going to get there in time to pull Shaw out of the water, since it appeared the couple was too shell shocked to do anything. Just as the shark came right upon Shaw, the little firecracker gave it a massive head butt. When the other shark swam Shaw’s way she punched it right in the shark’s big nose. Suddenly, the jet ski zoomed up way to close to Shaw’s head for comfort.  


“Are you trying to take my head off?!” yelled Shaw out of frustration, at this point she was going to lose a limb because of Root and not a shark.  


Shaw grabbed onto Root’s outstretched arm and was pulled up on the water ski. And Root sped off leaving the circling sharks in the distance. Then double backing to make sure Reese was there to help the couple.  


“Did you just punch a shark?” Root yelled to be heard over the jet ski engine.  


“It was just a tap.”  


Root shook her head. “Sameen Shaw. Shark wrangler.”  


Reese came over through the communication link, “I’ve got the couple, and I’ll tow the rowboat back. See you two on shore.” Reese as always super efficient and the most eloquently and brevity of speech.  


Shaw rolled her eyes, while also sizing up the jet ski and itching to drive. “I wanna drive now.”  


“Let me stop,” Root loosened her grips on the accelerator of the jet ski.  


“No, keep up the speed, just move,” Shaw motioned to Root.  


Shaw grabbed onto Root’s shoulders firmly so she could lean up and slide a leg over Root’s shoulder to basically sit in her lap. Her aim wasn’t to put her ass directly or quite literally shove it in Root’s face but the jet ski hit more turbulence than she predicted, and Shaw’s bottom slammed into Root’s face as she was sliding down into her lap. Her intention was to move in front of Root so she could drive, however, this was also turning out to be a nice little bit of payback for yoga and the shower incident. Because even though Shaw couldn’t see it, she almost felt that Root was physically getting hotter.  


“This really isn’t the time Shaw. Although, once again I appreciate your initiative,” Root had to stifle a giggle. And if her hands weren’t needed to drive and accelerate the jet ski, they would definitely be on Shaw’s ass right now holding her in place and not letting go.  


“The water is damn choppy. Move back, I don’t want to sit on your lap,” Shaw tried to shove Root with her bottom but all that really did was just press both of them together more forcibly much to the tall brunette’s delight. And when Root did let out a loud gasp, it was like an arousal boost injection straight into Shaw’s bloodstream, not that she needed any more boosters.  


“You are sitting on my lap Sameen,” Root continued to keep control of the jet ski, barely. She found it increasingly difficult to concentrate on anything but Shaw and how her body wanted with every molecule and cell to press, push and grind further into the shark wrangler as much as humanly possible.  


“Root, scoot back,” said Shaw more fiercely with a head tilt. The head tilt always seemed to convey that Shaw really meant a more serious tone.  


“I do love your sass,” Root finally did scoot back although be it only about an inch or two, so she was still pretty much still pressed up against Shaw, much to the shorter woman’s irritation yet also her somewhat suppressed arousal which she was battling with as it was raising higher and higher in levels with the prolonged contact with her teammate.  


“Either scoot back or I’m knocking you off and you become shark chum,” Shaw’s command this time got Root to scoot back maybe one more inch at most.  


Shaw tried to grab the handle controls from Root but as she tried to put her hands on the accelerator, the tall brunette wouldn’t let go. So much to Shaw’s annoyance her hands were on top of Root’s hands. “Move your hands Root.” So then Root moved her hands to Shaw’s hips, where she held on tightly. “Not there.”  


“There’s nothing else to hold onto Sameen,” which was mostly true, so Root wasn’t about to let go of Shaw’s waist until they were closer to shore. Although, as they got closer to the shore Root continued to lower her hands until they were almost resting on each side of Shaw’s ass.  


As they got closer they could see quite the spectacle near the shore with Fusco shooting in almost every direction on the water jet pack. His unintentional waterbactics show had garnered a small crowd on the beach. Hopefully, for Fusco’s sake the battery on the pack was going to wear out soon or short circuit. Shaw headed to the beach a little too fast, hoping to try a stunt before they hit the shore. She revved up the jet ski engine as they came dangerously close to the dock which caused the jet ski to push vertical. Shaw jumped off onto the deck and Root plummeted into the water. And thankfully the jet ski slammed onto the deck avoiding hitting anyone. Shaw looked pretty please with herself as she walked off the deck over to the beach.  


About the same time, the rental equipment guy yelled to cut the engine for the water jet pack, so Fusco also plummeted back into the water from a few feet up in the sky. Root swam over and slowly walked out of the water onto the beach. The yoga outfit glued to her body, and not leaving much to anyone imagination’s especially Shaw who stopped to gawk at her teammate for a little too long. When Root flipped her hair trying to shake the water out, Shaw reprimanded her brain for putting this action into some kind of slow motion erotic sequence like out of a teen’s hot fantasy with an erect nipples close up for a money shot. She hated to admit she was riveted watching the tall beautiful brunette exit the water dripping wet while fussing with her long hair. And when Root turned her eyes to Shaw, it was almost like taking a sex bullet straight to her groin area. Root smiled her high wattage smile directly at Shaw, the one she saved for special occasions. Shaw had noticed and it made her stomach feel tight and other muscles clench. Then Shaw remembered she hadn’t gotten to eat anything yet so it was probably just her stomach growling, she wanted to delude herself for as long as she possibly could.  


Root didn’t care for being thrown off the jet ski, although she admitted walking out of the water with the look Shaw was giving her might have been worth it. The petite firecracker was standing on the beach unsuccessfully not staring at Root, which made the tall brunette’s stomach feel airy and warm. She heard splashing behind her and saw Fusco stumbling towards her.  


“Geesh, there are two Coco Puffs now,” the detective looked pretty wobbly so Root reached over and took his arm. Shaw watched her two teammates struggling before shaking her head and walking over to them and taking Fusco’s other arm.  


“I’m glad your wife is here,” smiled Root at Shaw.  


Fusco was leaning heavily on Shaw for support and breathing heavy, he then tried to shake the water out of his ears; like a dog shaking water off after a tortuous bath. Shaw leaned as far away from him as possible while he did this, so did Root.  


Reese caught up with them after having docked the boat, he looked a little concerned for Fusco.  


“Where is the couple?” asked Shaw.  


“They left as soon as we hit the shore,” Reese said, “I checked with Finch, they were just two locals who got stranded.” Reese patted Fusco’s back. “They did say thanks to the insane woman who dropped from the sky to scare off the sharks.” Reese couldn’t help but throw Shaw a smirk.  


Suddenly, Joan appeared almost out of nowhere. “There the four of you are. I’ve been looking everywhere. The next group session starts in thirty minutes. See you there,” as Joan was leaving she squeezed Root’s arm then and Reese’s arm.  


“She’s really not subtle is she,” said Shaw as she winked to Fusco who smiled back to his fake wifey.  


*****  


Shaw decided she would rather smell like the ocean and get something to eat then to try and shower again before the group session. Thankfully, Root did go and change out of her skimpy yoga clothes and was now wearing khaki shorts with a flowery summer vacation style top of shirt, so it was less distracting Shaw thought. Fusco was back in as tracksuit and Reese chose food over changing too like Shaw.  


All five couples were seated this time at long tables. Joan walked into the room, her arms full of supplies, most notably huge white poster boards. Then Dr. Tinswell breezed in and went around the room touching everyone’s shoulder.  


“We had physical visualizations this morning with yoga, now we are going to have mental visualizations. We are going to dig deep into our dreams and make them come alive,” said Dr. Tinswell as she took a very deep breath and closed her eyes. “We are going to make vision boards to guide us through life and our dreams. To make our dreams become our life.”  


It was a quick draw on who tapped their ear their fastest, Reese or Shaw. “Finch? Finch? Are you there?” They both turned and looked at each other. Reese took the lead much to Shaw’s grimace, “Finch? What’s your ETA? I can be there in 2 minutes.”  


“I wasn’t aware that I called you Mr. Reese,” Finch’s voice was a flood of relief to all four teammates even though he wasn’t calling them into action. “There is no new information, I’m still pouring through the security cam footage and scrolling through data. Please, stay in your covers. And watch over The Roths.” And then Finch’s voice was gone. And before they knew it, Joan was handing everyone a white board and setting up an arrangement of markers, ribbons, glue bottles, glitter, paint brushes, stacks of photos, sea shells and many other arts and craft items to the team’s horror.  


Root thought to herself, she could usually find the silver lining in something, especially if she was near Shaw doing the something but this might be too much. She looked over to Reese beside her and he looked truly miserable. Shaw turned around briefly to glare at Root as if this was the hacker’s fault. Fusco was the only one that didn’t seem that bothered by the task. Well, the older couple seemed intrigued and the younger couple was showing off their virtual vision boards from Pinterest.  


“So let your imagination and your dreams come alive. Let your heart lead. Let your heart see the visions,” said Dr. Tinswell as she motioned for everyone to start working.  


Dr. Tinswell and Joan walked through the room and watched over everyone as they worked on their vision boards for the next hour. The two women offered help or answered questions and sometimes exchanged strange looks with each other every time one of them passed by Root’s vision board.  


“Okay, now we are going to share our vision boards with our partner,” said Dr. Tinswell. “They are the ones that will nurture, support and live our dreams with us,” said the doctor with a warm smile on her face.  


Reese turned to Root who angled her vision board for him to see, it was mostly abstract art if he had to pick something to say. There were outlines of people and even a dog against a black background, inside the outlines instead of features there were letters and numbers; Reese guessed code. Definitely the art or vision of someone that loved and breathed computers and he had to admit it was interesting looking. He feared it might be a Shaw shrine of some sort.  


“You want to make robots?” guessed Reese to Root. “Or people would be better off being robots.”  


“Excellent, John,” Reese actually got the high wattage smile from Root, “I was thinking it would be great if we could recode or reprogram some people. However, making robots works too.” Shaw turned around to look at the board and to see the smile that’s usually reserved for her and felt a twinge of anger.  


“Looks to abstract to me,” Shaw shrugged, “Is that a child?” There were at least five outlines in the vision board that were prominent up front along with the dog.  


“No, that’s you,” smiled Root to Shaw.  


“Why am I so much smaller than everybody? I look like a kid,” Shaw huffed.  


“You are pretty petite,” Root said even though she knew she would get a full shot of anger directly towards her. Shaw rolled her eyes and went back to concentrating on her board.  


Dr. Tinswell came back to their side of the room and looked at Fusco’s vision board, “Lionel, that’s a very nice vision board.” Fusco’s used a lot of the arts and crafts accessories; he threw in some photos, some ribbons and even seashells. He had photo of a nice home, sports car, vacation spots and then a huge photo of Karoline Kurkova. “Who is this Lionel?” asked Dr. Tinswell as she pointed to the Karolina Kurkova photo.  


“Oh, no she’s not my dream woman if that’s what you’re thinking. That’s my Sammy all the way,” Fusco leaned over and kissed Shaw on the cheek. Shaw was completely unprepared or she would have moved away, she did mange to keep a tight smile on her face for show while inwardly she wanted to wipe her cheek. “I just didn’t have a photo of Sammy to put on the board, so that’s just a place holder.” Fusco smiled at the doctor and his fake wife. “Let’s see your board pumpkin.”  


Shaw then showed her board to Fusco, while Root leaned over her table to get a good look. The vision board was divided into several sections; each section had a drawing that represented something. No photos were used, these were all drawn by hand or painted by brush and they were all beautifully done. One box had a drawing of a steak dinner with a glass of whiskey, one box had drawing that was clearly Bear, a very well done likeness. One box had a drawing of a gun going off that was very artistically done with gunpowder spraying everywhere. One drawing was of a medal being held by a young girl. One drawing was of a sports car racing down a street. And the last box was a drawing of an iron and an apple. There was silence at first while Fusco studied the board and a kind of awe. In fact, everyone seemed a bit speechless by the quality of the artwork done by Shaw and in such a short amount of time.  


“Sammy, this is exquisite. You are a true artist,” Dr. Tinswell beamed at Shaw, which caused the former Marine to almost blush.  


Root was surprisingly quiet. Shaw did sneak a glance to her and saw nothing but a warm, genuine smile from the hacker; it caused her stomach to tighten. However, lunch was way past due so that could have been it too.  


“I agree, Sammy. This is really beautiful. Let’s take it home and hang it up,” Fusco almost sounded completely believable. Shaw didn’t know if she wanted to strangle Fusco or give him a quick hug.  


Reese watched Shaw and saw she was a little out of her comfort zone so he propped up to show off his vision board. His vision board was done pretty much like Fusco’s, both of their boards were done as if anticipating a teacher’s expectations. Much like Fusco’s board, Reese had a similar kind of ‘normal’ theme going on with generic photos of family, friends, home, vacations and kids. All very neatly done but nothing personal on it; except the dog did look a lot like Bear.  


“Excellent work everyone,” said Dr. Tinswell after she had seen all the vision boards. “Now we break off into our journaling time and our private sessions. And then tonight there will be a luau on the beach.”  


The four teammates filed out of the room leaving behind their vision boards except for Fusco grabbing Shaw’s. And when Shaw saw Root was leaving hers behind she remarked, “You’re not taking your board?”  


“Did you like it?” Root asked while giving a small smile to Shaw.  


“It’s kind of freaky. It could probably scare off kids if hung in the right place,” Shaw said while staying nonchalant as she exited the room.  


The teammates parted ways to go get changed finally and grab some lunch. Root and Reese had just closed their door when there was a knock. Root opened the door to see Fusco holding Shaw’s vision board.  


“Thought you might want this Vincent Van Cuckoo,” Fusco handed over the board and patted Root’s arm. “What’s with the iron and apple? That box is weird,” said Fusco as he walked away.  


“Thank you Lionel,” Root smiled at him. She closed the door and headed into her room while gazing at the board, specifically the box drawing of the iron and the apple. She thought to herself, there were definitely some hidden depths to one Sameen Shaw when she wasn’t punching sharks.


	5. Only Jump Off High Cliffs If A Super Artificial Intelligence Gives You Safe Odds At Landing (this sounds like a long Philip K. Dick title)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the kudos and comments! Again, only thing keeping this fluff going and a pizza of course. Uh, not sure what to say as I was extremely distracted all week due to the extended promo and specially five seconds on repeat all week. I blame those five seconds for this overly extended silly mess. Apologies for typos and mistakes! Now back to THE gif, on repeat.

Thankfully, the younger couple at the retreat had some sort of meltdown in their private session with the good doctor so the rest of the private sessions for the day were canceled. This gave everyone a few hours off to rest, explore and try to find deadly threats, well just the four people who were most likely to shoot someone in the kneecaps if they had to endure another therapy session for the day. 

Reese and Fusco were instructed by Finch to check the perimeter again, which meant play another round of golf. Reese argued but Finch said this was the best course of action since the scientists had been in meetings all day. And playing golf was good for their cover. 

Finch detailed that someone should tail The Roths, the middle aged couples retreat couple, as they decided with their free time to go off hiking to see a volcano and a waterfall. Shaw volunteered, and adamantly said alone, to go and follow behind them to make sure they weren’t up to something. Root decided to stay close to the resort in case Finch needed help with anything. However, after about an hour of hovering around Finch, he told her that it looked like Shaw’s tracker had been disabled and that she should follow after them. So Finch arranged a ride for Root to the trailhead of the hiking trail. She didn’t have any idea how far ahead Shaw or the other hikers were; she was guessing about two hours. The hiking trail lead to two very different paths, one to a volcano and the other to a waterfall overlook, she figured Shaw would probably choose to see molten lava flowing and the Roths probably would too, so she started down that direction. Root hiked for close to an hour, getting really sweaty and hungry; thankfully she had brought a backpack of water and snacks. Suddenly, she heard voices from up a head; she ducked off to the side behind some trees. She watched as the Roths passed by her, they looked fine, nothing too sinister appeared to be going on; the couple looked quite jovial, who wouldn’t, the trail easily had to be one of the most stunning hiking trails in the world. Root kept hiking until she could see a wider clearing getting closer. Then she saw her favorite primary asset, as she got closer, Shaw was standing looking over the flowing lava. It was quite the majestic site to behold, not something Root got to see every day. She loved New York, however not any volcanoes in the city and rarely ever a sighting of Shaw in shorts. The mostly grumpy little pill actually had a peaceful look on her face while looking out over the lava coursing through the deep canals in the mountain. Root came up slowly to stand next to her and take in the view. They both stood there for a few minutes in awe of one of earth’s greatest shows. 

“Why are you here?” asked Shaw as she shook her head slightly and kept staring out over the lava flow. 

“Can’t a couple of gals ogle a volcano together?” Even without looking at her, Shaw could tell Root was smiling at her. 

Shaw rolled her eyes, only so much earth’s majestic could out weigh Root’s comments. “Did you at least pass by the couple on the way up?”

“Yes, they were just hiking,” Root fished inside her backpack and pulled out two protein bars, she handed one to Shaw; who shook her head but quickly snatched it up. 

Shaw had to admit, Root usually had really good snacks; one good reason to keep her around. And another good reason sometimes it doesn’t suck when the hacker showed up unexpectedly. 

They both ate in silence watching the volcano, then decided to trek over to the waterfall to get a glimpse before heading back to the resort. They both walked up to the edge of the cliff over looking the waterfall. The thunderous sound of the water cascading down to the bottom was an intoxicating melody of nature. 

“That’s a serious drop,” said Root looking at the distance from the top where they were standing and the bottom of the waterfall. 

“Eh, it’s pretty minor. I dropped further than that earlier today,” said Shaw studying the drop and thinking it was pretty darn steep. 

“Oh really. You think this is shorter?”

“Yeah, it’s like a high dive at a community pool. And there’s no sharks, so kind of lame,” Shaw tried to look as nonchalant as possible, actually the drop off the cliff looked pretty dangerous. “Probably better to walk back, get in some more cardio.” Shaw turned around and headed back towards the hiking trail. 

Root started following Shaw, then she stopped and turned around looking at the cliff with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Shaw could feel Root had stopped so she turned to see what the tall brunette was doing. 

“On second thought, I think I’ve had my fill of cardio today,” Root sprang from her spot and started running at full force towards the edge of the cliff and launched herself over. Shaw stared off shocked with her mouth open. She then sprang into action and sprinted over to the edge, looking frantically everywhere for Root down below. This had to be a joke. The hacker could be impulsive at times but she wouldn’t just leap off a dangerous cliff, would she? She really hated that her heart was beating erratically, she rationalized her frantic pulse was due to anger; she was pissed. If Root died from such a stupid stunt then she would probably have to drag her body back, or if she broke her leg then she would have to drag the long legged hacker back miles; especially, since there wasn’t much signal out here deep in the heart of nature. She half expected the tall brunette to pop up behind her and laugh. She kept scanning the surface of the water down below for the idiot, but she couldn’t see Root anywhere. 

“Sameen! Take the plunge!” Shaw looked at the edge of the water and there was the idiotic Root sunbathing on a rock. How in the hell did she pop up without being seen Shaw wondered? She was so pissed at the hacker she could literally see red. She was definitely going to make Root pay for that stupid stunt and for her heart palpitations. She shook her head in fury and rolled her eyes. Shaw wanted to just walk off and leave the annoying hacker behind. 

Shaw walked a bit away from the edge, she gauged how much of a leap to make to make sure she cleared everything, she couldn’t believe she was baited into something so stupid by her stupid co-worker, however she wasn’t about to let Root outdo her on a stunt. She took a deep breath and started charging as fast as she could towards the edge, she jumped as far as she could to distance herself from the side of the mountain. 

Root’s heart might have leapt a little seeing the petite firecracker sky dive off the cliff into the water. Yes, it had been her stupid idea to sort of get back at Shaw for dropping into a circle of sharks, but now seeing the petite primary asset jump made her throat clench. Root had checked with The Machine before jumping, she would have never done the stunt if wasn’t mostly safe. The Machine had assured Root it was a moderately safe jump despite looking pretty dangerous, it was a good angle and it would actually knock about two miles off their trek back to the resort. The hacker scanned the water but Shaw wasn’t popping up. She started to get nervous. She then saw something slowly rise to the surface. Shaw was floating face down. All rational thought left Root’s brain as she called out Shaw’s name and dove back into the water to help Shaw. Root swam as hard as she could against the current to reach Shaw and pulled her to the side of the bank; she grabbed Shaw by the shoulders to shake her. She kept calling Shaw’s name, she leaned close to her face and at that moment the petite firecracker fired a stream of water into her face from her mouth. Root winced but didn’t let go of Shaw just giggled which spurred on the petite firecracker to molten lava anger levels. As soon as Shaw felt she wasn’t being let go she pushed off Root and started splashing aggressively towards the hacker, so much it looked like a typhoon near the waterfall. Root lunged for Shaw and latched herself onto the shorter woman’s back. She might not be near as strong as Shaw, however long limbs were very useful for trapping smaller prey. 

Root wrapped her arms and legs tightly around Shaw while the petite primary asset splashed furiously to free herself along with kicking and scratching to get away. Root couldn’t hang onto Shaw much longer, Shaw’s thrashing around was both super strong and very slippery. They were completely entangled with her each even more so than the hot yoga down dog bow pose from the morning. Root’s height gave her the advantage and she also guessed her water treading ability, Shaw kept trying unsuccessful to head-butt with the back of her head since Root had her encased in a jaws of life spoon lock situation. Just before Shaw was about to break free Root pushed her lips to the back of Shaw’s neck to latch on, she was going for erotically charged kiss like a sexy vampire, however it slightly turned into either more leech like suction or horny teen hickey machine; it was hard with Shaw thrashing around. One thing was for sure Root decided, having her lips on Shaw in any capacity on any part of her body was worth any payback she was going to get. She couldn’t help but let out a loud moan, she felt like her blood was searing lava coursing through her veins. And once Root’s lips latched onto Shaw’s neck the thrashing from the petite firecracker did slow down a bit. 

Shaw was furious at Root for trapping her like a bee in a spider’s web with her impossibly long limbs and almost equally mad at herself for enjoying it. And then Root had to start sucking on her neck like she was a horny vampire that hadn’t eaten in decades. She almost ended herself when she let out a gasp combined with a moan, thankfully Root couldn’t see her face to see how fiercely she was blushing. Root’s grabbing became more centered on her breasts, and Shaw cursed her body for leaning into the neck sucking, the damn hacker was hitting her pulse points, which felt like kryptonite being hung around Superman’s neck. She tried to grab onto Root’s clothing, finally hooking her hands onto Root’s pants she pulled hard to swing them around to get the advantage on the hacker. As soon as they were face to face with the ground under their feet now, Shaw clawed at Root’s shirt and grabbed each arm fiercely and with one explosive pull tore the red v-neck t-shirt all the way down the middle. Root let out a massive gasp, they stared at each other panting while Shaw pulled them closer together while tearing and pushing Root’s red shirt further off her shoulders. They both leaned in with their mouths open, breathing the same space, the lips almost touching, just hovering over each other, ready to devour each other. 

“Hey! This is a family trail! Take the porn show on the road!” A man yelled down at them from up above on the top of the cliff, he had three kids looking down on Root and Shaw with him.  


Both women’s heady sexual haze spell was broken, they both looked up to the onlookers. Two of the kids waved down at them. Root waved back while Shaw pushed off her, rolled her eyes and swam near the bank where she could stand up fully. 

There was a very awkward silence between them as Root trudged up behind her. Her shirt hanging completely open, her chest and bra on display while water flooding off of her as she continued walking out of the river. Shaw didn’t want to look, however her eyes betrayed her and it didn’t help Root was smiling way too smugly. 

Shaw was actually the one who broke the silence; she figured it better to talk about something else than what almost happened. 

“Really Root? You fell for that TWICE in one day?” Shaw said as she gave her a condescending grin while trying helplessly at the same time to squash her raging arousal as Root walked closer to her, she backed up a little; it did not help at all that the hacker was basically topless. 

“Okay, fine so you got me. It’s true like the old saying, ‘Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me’,” Root stared intensely at Shaw, “Fool me thrice, you’re probably really hot.”

Shaw rolled her eyes; she didn’t remember the last part to the old cliché saying. 

“In my defense, this morning you were pleasuring yourself in front of me instead of possibly jumping to your death, so slightly different circumstances,” Root smirked at Shaw. 

“That’s not what I was doing this morning,” huffed Shaw. 

“Sure, looked like it. I might have to file a sexual harassment complaint with Harry,” Root was doing nothing about her torn open shirt, wearing it almost like a badge of hotness. She did walk over and grab her backpack where she had left it before jumping into the water to ‘save’ Shaw. 

“Are you kidding me? You sexually harass every minute of every day. You just sexually harassed me so hard by jumping and grinding on my back. And sucking on me like a leech,” Shaw angrily pointed to her neck which caused Root to blush and smile broadly as she could see a hickey around forming on the petite primary asset. 

“And you tore my shirt wide open with an audience no less. Maybe we need our own therapy session. Or we could just…” Root moved closer to Shaw, dropping the backpack on the ground and standing right in front of her, leaving very space between them and one very open shirt. Shaw stared up into Root’s eyes then bent down and picked up the backpack. 

“We got to get headed back before dark,” Shaw rummaged until she found two water bottles, passing one to Root. “Did you bring a jacket or anything else?” Shaw awkwardly motioned to Root’s torn red V-neck t-shirt hanging open, and once again she couldn’t stop herself from staring at Root’s bare chest and her breasts of course. She had to flee this situation; she averted her eyes and took a step back from Root. They both knew without saying what Root’s ellipse meant, they could just give in to each other and see what happens. Root was all in from day one, Shaw hated to admit but she strongly felt something holding her back, which was unusual when it came to sex. However, this wouldn’t just be sex no matter how much the genius hacker might proclaim it. She really had come to like the team; in fact it might be her favorite team yet. She didn’t want to ruin it with sex and she strongly felt that getting involved with Root would change the team dynamic, well definitely their dynamic she feared. 

“No, I didn’t plan on you tearing my shirt off during a sexy waterfall encounter,” Root said while smiling wickedly and Shaw pinching the bridge of her nose. “Why don’t you give me your sports bra?” Root motioned to Shaw; she could tell the petite primary asset was wearing one under her black t-shirt. 

“Fine,” Shaw said begrudgingly, “Turn around,” she scowled towards Root who obeyed while also taking off her bra. Shaw could feel Root come up behind her and sling her bra over her shoulder as she reached out grabbed the sports bra. Shaw could feel the heat radiating off Root’s naked upper half, without turning around the yanked at the bra and felt Root gently take the sports bra. She felt goose bumps pop up and the hacker wasn’t even touching her. 

“Sharing undergarments, sharing the bathroom. This has been a day of many firsts,” grinned Root while putting on the Shaw’s sports bra. 

“And lasts,” said Shaw as she fastened Root’s bra and put her t-shirt back on. Then she realized she could have just given Root her shirt, okay her brain wasn't getting nearly enough blood flow for proper functions. 

They walked back in silence, enjoying the view of the hike. Most of their missions and numbers didn’t take them to some place so serene, there was almost a peace that came over on their walk back; a nice peaceful, comfortable silence. A nice break from their intense encounter, although every time they looked at each other the air felt thicker. Root actually hiked back in silence, although she did seem to enjoy watching Shaw hike in front of her as much as the panoramic view of this side of a Maui hiking trail. 

When they arrived back at the resort there was just enough time to get ready and changed for the luau on the beach. 

Shaw shook her head, they hadn’t helped one number today but it had been exhausting day. A day without dodging bullets aimed at vital organs and still exhausting, although in a more peaceful way if she had to admit it. 

Root walked off to her room getting a few glances around the resort from staff while she proudly wore Shaw’s sports bra under her torn open shirt. Thankfully, Joan wasn’t in the lobby or she might have to fight off the overly enthusiastic handsy assistant. And there was only person she wanted to be overly enthusiastic and handsy, and that particular petite firecracker had done just that a mere hour ago. Root felt her whole body vibrate and a strong shudder come over her just thinking of Shaw ripping her shirt with sheer lust force. She didn’t know what made Sameen stop, her heart felt a ping with that thought. Instead she went back to the shirt ripping, it was moment she was going to play over and over in her mind probably for the rest of her life. 

*****

As Fusco and Shaw were walking up to the luau set up on the beach, the detective looked over to his fake wife and saw a pretty noticeable blemish on her neck. He had to chuckle to himself because it totally looked like a hickey. Him and Reese had a nice afternoon of golfing while also checking the perimeter, but mostly it was golf and it was actually mostly relaxing. He knew Shaw had gone on a hike to follow the suspicious couple and supposedly Coca Puffs had helped Finch. His detective mind however, felt strongly that was definitely a hickey on Shaw’s neck and it didn’t seem like his fake wife would be making out with someone from the resort, another guest or even that Joan woman. That only left Coca Puffs who would be more than happy to give the petite grumpy pill a thousand hickeys he guessed. 

“Did something bite you there Shorty on your hike?” Fusco asked without hiding a snicker across his face while pointing to Shaw’s neck. 

“Yes, some big ass freakish spider,” Shaw grunted, she had noticed the hickey after taking a shower and was fuming at Root for doing it, although every time she caught a glimpse of it her whole body felt electrocuted, wanting to feel Root’s lips on her neck and skin again. She shook her head; she kept trying to hold down her hormones. She had put some make-up on the hickey, but it didn’t look like it was hiding it that well. 

Shaw was happy that Lionel and her were able to take a break from their tracksuits. Lionel wore a traditional Hawaiian shirt with khaki pants and Shaw wore a strapless beach type of dress with her hair down. She rarely wore her hair down, so she figured why not and she was trying to stay in character, plus it could help hide Root’s ridiculous juvenile hickey. She did not want to think anymore about that stupid hickey or how she wanted to put one on the inside of Root’s left thigh, on second thought on both thighs and maybe even other areas. She also, felt pretty wiped from the day; you don’t get to punch sharks every day. And do hot yoga. And jump off a cliff. And way too much Root interaction for one day, she had been pressed up against the hacker’s body enough for one day and a lifetime. All that body pressing was driving her hormones mad, she needed to crush her hormones. Her hormones and body were such idiots; they had no idea what they were pushing to get themselves involved with. Shaw’s brain kept trying to reason with them, explain all the facts on why hooking up with Root was a colossal mistake; no matter how incredibly good it felt just being near the hacker. Let alone having said body wrapped around the hacker’s frame slick with sweat, tightly wound together like pretzel. That yoga position was tougher than some sex positions and the two of them seemed to get entwined with a fair amount of ease, which was actually quite scary. The main reason she had to rush to go take a shower after yoga is because her clothes were completely drenched and it wasn’t because of the thermostat, it was a pure Root gush. Her body was definitely telling a different story than her brain. Although, she would like to point out in her body’s defense she had been busy saving lives to get some proper sheet action lately and rubbing up against someone begrudgingly extremely attractive was just a logical chemical reaction. And quite possible all this fresh air was making her a little tired and unbalanced. The only logical explanation for ripping Root’s shirt off, she shook her head to herself thinking about it. If that family hadn’t interrupted them, she had not doubt her damn hormones would have gotten their victory right there, many times and practically under a waterfall. Root would have loved that, geesh it sounds so cheesy romantic; she would never let that one go. Then she spotted the bar and perked up. 

“Whiskey, please,” Shaw said to the bartender while eagerly awaiting some much needed alcohol. 

“Sorry, we are only serving more traditional drinks during the luau. Would you like a Lava Flow or a Blue Hawaii or the Volcano Lust?” asked the male bartender, Shaw let out a disappointed sigh. 

“I’ll take three of each,” Shaw glared at the bartender. 

“I would slow down there, Shorty, I heard some of these fruity drinks were quite strong,” said a slightly concerned Fusco, “add a club soda for me.” 

“Lionel, please. They’re fruity drinks. It would take about thirty fruit drinks to get a buzz,” Shaw instructed the bartender to just keep the drinks coming over to the table she was going to be sitting at. 

“Sure thing there Shorty, famous last words,” Fusco smirked at Shaw, “You don’t want to get bit again.”

Shaw glared at him wondering if he knew her spider bite was actually a Root hickey. She looked over and saw Reese and Root already playing the happy couple at a long table with the other retreat couples and she rolled her eyes. 

“Should we take our seats, Sammy cakes,” asked Fusco, while extending his arm for Shaw to take while escorted her to the long table where the other couples were seated. 

When Root saw Shaw walking towards them her eyes were transfixed. Reese had to shake his head and smile. He wondered if Shaw noticed at all. Then thought she must because she had a smirk on her face, but didn’t glance their way and definitely not in Root’s direction; which felt on purpose. Shaw went straight towards the bar with Fusco trailing behind her, when she finally reached her destination and stood at the bar, Fusco put his hand on her back. Root couldn’t help but practically drool over the petite primary asset in her summer dress, flowing hair and glowing skin. Fusco was smiling and Shaw in spite of herself, the petite woman seemed to be enjoying his company. Root admitted it was a nice sight; this whole day was actually nice to spend time with people who had grown to become a kind of family she never knew she needed or wanted. She looked across the table at John, he truly did have one of the biggest hearts of someone she had ever met despite probably having the Guinness Book of Records title for shooting the most kneecaps. 

“It’s a nice night,” said John looking over at Root, “and this is actually kind of nice.” Root smiled at him. 

Just then Dr. Tinswell stood in front of the table with Joan by her side and addressed the table of couples. 

“I would like everyone to get up and join us on the dance floor. We are going to practice our rhythm together before we start our feast, then we will practice again after,” Dr. Tinswell as she motioned for everyone to get up. “Being in rhythm with each other is very important. Listening to not only your body, also to your partner’s body.” 

“I spoke too soon,” said John as he grimaced, Root gave him a sympathetic nod. 

“Good gawd, I’m gonna kneecap this woman,” said Shaw while aiming eye daggers at Dr. Tinswell. 

“Finch, seriously. Don’t you need a break? I could watch over the security feeds,” said Reese having tapped his communication link several times. 

“Ditto. And I offered an hour ago Harold,” remarked Shaw while glaring at Reese. 

“Lionel, I think our dance partners are avoiding us,” smirked Root to Fusco. 

“It’s just because they know we are going to kick their asses at dancing,” Fusco seemed pretty confident in this arena. He then stood up and walked behind Shaw’s chair, very gentlemen and proper like offered his hand to her. “What do you say stud muffin, take a twirl?” Fusco had a twinkle in his eye. Shaw rolled her eyes, threw her napkin on the table with disdain and accepted her partner’s hand reluctantly. 

Once they made it to the dance floor, Shaw gritted her teeth, “Just so you know, one time I broke a guy’s entire hand when he wouldn’t let me lead. All 27 bones.” 

“Good story, I’m leading though,” Fusco smiled at Shaw, “Unless of course you want to explain a broken limb to miss doctor lady over there or Glasses.” He said in a cocky tone, which made Shaw ground her teeth more. 

Root followed Fusco’s lead, stood up and walked behind Reese’s chair; who in return didn’t wait for an offered hand and stood up slowly. He put his hand on Root’s back as they walked to the dance floor. Once they got there, Reese put his hand on Root’s waist and she put her arms resting on his shoulders. They looked at each other and gave a little smile to each other; fondness had actually washed over them over the trials and tribulations of the years. 

Dr. Tinswell started circling the dance floor, interacting between all the couples, talking and guiding them. 

“Yes, maintain deep eye contact with your partner,” instructed Dr. Tinswell while continuing to circle the dance floor and check on everyone. 

Root tore her eyes from Reese’s and looked over at Shaw, and with only staring at her target for a mere second Shaw turned her head and stared back at Root. Root then lowered her gaze to stare at her handiwork on Shaw’s neck, she did her wink and the shorter brunette felt her blood rising in temperature, she hoped it was pure anger and not another wave of dreaded arousal. Anger was much easier to work with than arousal, especially involving Root. Shaw had to shake her head; okay maybe those volcano fruity drinks were stronger than she thought. She had managed to gulp three down before hitting the dance floor. She was having a wild current of thoughts running through her head. Usually when her v-commander took over for her whole body there was an easy target at hand. An easy mark for one night, maybe three if the person was non-clingy and exceled at certain horizontal talents, male or female, it didn’t really matter. There were going to be no easy marks here at the resort, plus she had to maintain her cover. And egging on Root or acting on one of Root’s advances would prove disastrous in huge ways. Her sober brain needed to present a debate like a hard-core lawyer so the v-commander could be shut down completely. Shaw didn’t even realize how long she had been staring at Root or vice versa. Because she was never alone in this game, Root was always pulling or pushing her. 

“Jealous there, Shorty?” asked Fusco as he watched his two female co-workers stare at each other with amusement in his face. He thought he might need to break it up since the good doctor lady was heading in their direction again. 

“They look like they’re at a high school dance,” Shaw remarked, “They look like the prom king and queen, lame. Not jealous, I feel bad for Reese,” the petite firecracker tried to play off her staring. 

Fusco had to stifle a chuckle watching Shaw watch Root with Reese. He almost felt bad for his fake wife; she seemed oblivious how much she was staring at the tall, dark deranged pair. 

“You’re a nice dancer John,” said Root when she finally took her eyes off Shaw. “Think Finch is okay? He’s been quiet.”

Reese had slight concern wash over his face, “I had the same thought, I’ll go over and check on him after dinner.” 

Thankfully, the dancing part ended and the couples were served the luau feast, which was mostly to everyone’s liking, especially Shaw’s. The petite primary asset continued to consume about a dozen more fruity drinks in hopes of getting a fruity drink buzz instead of a Root buzz. When she got up to use the bathroom, Root excused herself and followed behind her.

“Wanna check out how our rhythm together?” asked Root as she waited for Shaw near the sinks. 

“I’ll pass,” said Shaw bypassing the hacker and washing her hands. 

“You’re right. We know we already have amazing rhythm and flexibility, demonstrated by hot yoga today.” Root reapplied her lipstick and glanced over at Shaw, who in return tried to maintain her distance and squash prolonged eye contact or lip watching. 

As Shaw walked out of the bathroom followed by Root, the hacker noticed something with her petite teammate, she seemed kind of stiff or something. Or quite possibly drunk. 

“Shaw, are you feeling okay?” asked a genuinely concerned Root. 

“My back feels a little tweaked, I’m sure because you yanked that stupid shower cord or that dumb yoga stuff or that you made me jump off a cliff. You probably broke my back with your freakishly long leg weight,” Shaw put her hand on back and stretched while walking through the lobby. 

“I could think of another way I would rather break your back,” Root knew she was going to get a molten glare from this remark and she was not disappointed by Shaw’s flaming hard stare. 

Shaw’s head did feel fuzzy, maybe Fusco was right and the fruity volcano drinks were stronger than she thought. And also because all she wanted to do was to drag Root off by her long, irritating luxurious hair and suck on her tongue so long and hard maybe the hacker wouldn’t talk for a few days. She really needed to get away from Root right now, Fusco would provide the safe haven; she would never sleep with him. 

“I offer my services as a masseur for you,” Root gave Shaw head tilt with actual concern overcoming her face more than innuendo. 

Just then before Shaw had a chance to throw out a snarky remark, Joan was upon them. “Did I hear you mention you needed a masseuse Sam? I’m certified, I would be more than happy to give you a massage,” Joan was beaming a little too much at Root. Root wondered if she looked this way to Shaw, way too eager and desperate. No, she thought, whether Shaw ever wanted to admit she had encouraged Root from time to time; and in some regards been her biggest cheerleader in getting her on the team. The Machine had told her that last part in confidence. 

Shaw couldn’t believe this woman was hitting on Root, a married woman, right in front of her. She felt more annoyed by this woman than even Root, and she wanted Root away from this woman. 

“Actually, it’s Sammy here who is need of a hard rub down,” said Root while Shaw ground her teeth, sometimes the Root’s choice of words were beyond idiotic and silly for no good reason. 

“Oh, sure. I could help her too,” said Joan in a very non-veiled disappointed tone.

“No, thanks,” snapped Shaw as she turned and headed back towards the luau. 

“Sameen, you just turned down a free massage,” Root replied as she caught up to the slightly wobbly Shaw. 

“No, I didn’t. You better be certified,” damn those dozen fruity drinks Shaw cursed as she changed direction and headed to towards Root and Reese’s room instead of back to the luau. 

“I am, I had to give 47 massages one time during a mission.”

“Yeah, yeah, that better not have included any happy endings,” Shaw cursed her brain once again, why did she that? “Not that I care.” 

“We could include that perk in your massage,” Root gave her the trademark smirk while her favorite primary asset rolled her eyes. “I’m going to let the boys know that you’re not feeling well and we’re not coming back.” 

When they got back to Reese and Root’s room, they headed to Root’s room; where she begun getting ready. “Okay, Sameen strip down and get on the bed.” Root said in a very forceful tone.

“No way,” said Shaw which a pointed look from Root. “Fine, shirt only.” It’s then her fruity drink state of mind realized that she was wearing a dress. 

“Well, it is your back we’re concentrating on so suit yourself,” Root went into the bathroom to change into a tank top and boy shorts. 

Shaw looked through Root’s stuff to find a pair of shorts; she threw the dress aside and crawled up on the bed. Root exited the bathroom and found the petite brunette was laying face down with her head resting on a pillow.

“Just hurry up and get this over with, I just need my back loosened up a bit,” ordered Shaw to Root. 

“Sameen Shaw, such a romantic,” Root said while also getting that look on her face while receiving other information, “The boys say they hope you feel better. Lionel say he hopes you don’t get bitten again by another spider.” 

“Root…”

“Just the messenger Shaw,” Root walked over to the dresser than back to the bed, “Luckily, the concierge had some massage oil.”

“For you, not surprisingly,” snorted Shaw. 

Root leaned over the bed and started rubbing large circles on Shaw’s back. 

“Root, you’re not going to get any leverage that way,” Shaw sighed, “You need to get on the bed.”

Root couldn’t contain her smile. “Thought you would never ask.”

“Root, keep it in your pants.”

Root crawled up on the bed. She grabbed Shaw’s legs and started massaging them, and then she quickly worked her way up. She lifted up her knees one at a time so she could straddle Shaw’s waist, she slowly lowered herself down as she ran her hands up Shaw’s back. She used every fiber in her being not to moan out loud as that would have made Shaw leap off the bed, like leaping off the cliff earlier. 

Shaw really hated to admit but there was something about having someone’s physical weight on top of you that was comforting. She felt warm and strangely safe with Root massaging her back, she totally blamed all those fruity drinks. She knew she had to get up soon to head to the couch or her snoring hell of room. Suddenly, everything fell away and she drifted off to sleep. 

Root could feel Shaw’s breathing change; she slowed down her ministrations on her back and leaned over to look at the petite woman’s face. She couldn’t help a broad grin that spread across her face; she was somewhat disappointed Shaw fell asleep on her. But then Root thought, Shaw falling asleep with her might be an even bigger score than actually scoring with her favorite primary asset.


	6. Hot Tub Therapy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading, kudos and comments! This has been really fun writing and getting such wonderful support, sorry there’s not much plot, well there might be a sliver. It’s been very helpful waiting through this countdown and reading all the other wonderful stories. OMG. We are down to less 48 hours depending on where you live. Apologies for typos and mistakes, no thorough proofreading.

Shaw’s brain started waking up, like an old light bulb that blinks several times to get to full wattage. First, thing her brain noticed that she was very warm and had pleasurable sensations going on throughout her whole body. Then an alarm siren went off in her head when she realized the sensations were skin on skin, a feeling unlike any other sensation in the world. When her brain finally booted back up again, to her horror she realized she was practically lying completely on top of Root. Her head was using Root’s chest as a pillow, one arm draped across her torso and her legs, even her legs betrayed her and were entwined with the hacker’s bare legs. And to top it all off she was still topless from the massage. When she lifted her head she noticed another horrific image, she had actually drooled on Root. Then she felt Root shift, building a small amount of friction between their legs. She realized her v-commander was definitely trapped between the hacker’s legs. Shaw hesitated for a moment, reveling in the exquisite torture of the heat building up between her legs. Not to mention her head was pounding, either from a lack of blood, that flooding lower regions, or those damn fruity drinks. She really couldn’t tell if Root was asleep or faking it or wet dreaming all over her. 

“What the hell Root?!” Shaw finally decided to sit up and looked around for the sheets. 

Root didn’t wake up right away. Shaw saw the tail end of the sheet and jerked it around her torso and waist. She then pushed her foot into Root’s ribs. 

“What? What’s going on? Harry in trouble?” Root sat up with messy hair and sleepy eyes. 

“Did you drug me last night?” asked Shaw angrily while glaring at Root. 

“Drug you?” asked a confused and bemused Root, she ran a hand through her matted hair, still having trouble opening her eyes fully to look at an angry Shaw. 

“How in the hell did I end up sleeping in here?”

“Sameen, you fell asleep during the massage, like dead asleep. I couldn’t wake you. Fusco told you those fruity drinks were strong,” Root sat up more fully and leaned back against the headboard, leaving her long, bare, exquisite legs on display and showing off a pair of black boy shorts underwear. 

“So you just took an opportunity…” Shaw looked at Root very flustered.

However, before she could finish, Root jumped in, “To sleep yeah. Once again, it is my room and bed.” Root loved seeing Shaw so flustered, not to mention she looked utterly adorable with bed hair and wrapped in a sheet. It took all her will power not to pounce on the petite woman. Flustered Shaw might be her favorite, or annoyed Shaw or messy Shaw from either lack of sleep or hunger; okay, she loved all the Shaws. 

Shaw grit her teeth, if Root used that excuse one more time. Shaw did remember the massage vaguely. She thought she must have been completely blitzed out drunk to agree to a Root massage that involved her getting topless. Although, I’m sure her body had taken over the controls at that point and wanted nothing more than to have Root topless as well, an image she tried to shake from head. And how in one day had she been topless twice in Root’s presence, three if you count the bra swapping. 

“I was a perfect gentleman. I covered you up and moved as far away from you as possible,” said Root while spreading her arms across the headboard. 

“No, proper etiquette would have been for you to sleep on the couch,” Shaw made a pointed face with squinted eyes. 

“What and miss the rom com possibilities?” Root said with a twinkle in her eyes. 

“My most detested genre,” spat out Shaw. 

“Sameen, you’re pretty compact. There was still so much space. I had no idea during the night you would be the one doing all the spooning and drooling on me,” the tall brunette had to throw that in with complete glee in her voice. 

“That’s a lie,” said Shaw soaked with venom. 

“Is it Sameen?” said Root as she pointed to a wet patch on her tank top and smiled too broadly. “Do you want to see another wet patch?” Root raised an eyebrow and lowered her eyes to cast a glance downwards. 

“NO. I’ll pass.” Shaw rolled her eyes, as much as she wanted to look to verify this information, she turned her head. 

Root thought she might try and diffuse the situation. “Sameen, you probably did it out of self preservation. I tend to kick all the covers off the bed, so I bet you were just cold. Okay? And once again, disappointingly, I didn’t see anything. I might have felt everything…” Shaw shot her a menacing glare. “…nothing happened, ask The Machine.” 

“Stop,” Shaw ground her teeth, her anger was boiling at this point. “I don’t want a recap. And where are your hideous pajama bottoms?” It was bad enough looking at the impossibly long, lean, bare swoon worthy legs and it was even more intoxicating realizing those legs were just wrapped around parts of Shaw’s legs, which ran tiny shivers up and down Shaw’s body. 

“You made me take them off…” Root said in a seductive tone. 

“Stop,” Shaw really didn’t want to know anything she said to Root while drunk or half asleep, mostly because it was probably laced with more truth than her every day non-drunk conversations and didn’t want to hear what her brain might really be thinking about Root. Then she noticed Root’s underwear which looked really familiar, “Root, is that my underwear?”

“Hope you don’t mind, these are really comfy,” Root said suggestively to Shaw. 

Shaw yanked at the sheet to pull it off the bed to use a cover to the bathroom, which proved difficult since Root was partially sitting on it and didn’t seem to want to move. Shaw gave a huff, and then brought out some maximum strength to pull so hard she got the rest of the sheet and in the process toppled Root over the edge of the bed. Shaw was pretty pleased with herself as she grabbed one of Root’s tops and headed to the bathroom. Before she slammed the door she let the sheet drop to the floor, putting her bare back on display for Root. 

*****

Shaw exited Root’s bedroom with her hair matted in a bedhead mess, wearing begrudgingly the hacker’s shorts and shirt. She did not expect both Reese and Fusco to be in the kitchen. And she didn’t expect Root to follow her out in only her underwear and tank top. They all four stopped and had a brief uncomfortable silence. 

“Is this a coming out party?” asked Fusco with a mischievous glee to his voice. Reese couldn’t help but smile as he discreetly looked away from his two female co-workers and their disheveled, partially clothed states. 

“Sorry, to disappoint Lionel but Shaw had one too many fruity drinks and passed out in the ladies room. I just brought her here to sleep it off. Your wife remains faithful to you,” smirked Root to the detective. “Much to my disappointment.” 

Shaw squinted her eyes hard at Root, like there was ever a time she couldn’t hold her liquor; especially stupid fruity drinks. 

Root moved to get around Shaw to head towards the kitchen, “Is there any coffee?” However, Shaw grabbed her arm roughly, nodded to down Root’s body. 

“Root, put some pants on,” Shaw seethed out. It was bad enough she had to gawk at the impossibly delicious legs; it was quite another matter for them to be on display for the guys, not to mention her underwear, which she was totally getting back from the hacker. 

Root went back into her bedroom to grab Shaw’s despised pajama bottoms. And as she exited the bedroom to head to the kitchen there was a knock on the door. Root walked over to answer and was pleasantly surprised by the guest. 

“Hello, Ms. Groves,” Harold stood in the hallway in his maintenance resort uniform. He glanced down at her Grumpy cat pajama bottoms, looked mildly bewildered and stepped inside. 

“Good to see you Harry, I was getting worried,” Root couldn’t help notice that Harold looked perhaps a little tan and his face appeared somewhat relaxed. 

“I thought I would come in person to deliver an update. I’m quite happy everyone is together,” Finch looked between the four of them standing around the kitchen area as he walked closer.

“Yeah, we’re having brunch,” joked Fusco while taking a bite of a granola bar he found on the counter. Shaw reached over and nabbed one for herself, while Root went in and got some coffee behind John. 

“Finch, do we finally have something to do besides get in touch with our feelings,” said Reese while Shaw smirked and nodded her head in agreement. 

“I believe so. I need assistance on retrieving something buried pretty deep,” said Finch while pulling out a map from his inside jacket pocket and spreading it out on the countertop. “There is a signal coming from somewhere in this area about 30 meters under water.” 

“What could be buried under water sending off a signal?” asked Root staring at the map intrigued. 

“I haven’t a clue, yet we need to check it out. I’ve gone ahead and procured scuba diving equipment,” Shaw looked pleased, at least something besides more therapy. “However, you both have therapy sessions first, so we will meet up afterwards on the south side of the beach, a bit more secluded for our needs.” 

“Finch, this sounds urgent. I think this takes precedence over our cover therapy sessions,” said Reese with an almost pleading nature to his voice and eyes. 

“No, Mr. Reese. Please, keep up your cover with Ms. Groves. You are both scheduled after each other, so at least that will be in a somewhat timely fashion.” Finch left the map, as he knew they wanted to study it. “I need to get back to my post.” Finch smiled gently and turned to leave. 

All four of them watched as Finch left the room, then Root turned to Fusco and Shaw, “Looks like you two are up first for hot tub therapy,” Root said while eyeing Shaw, “Shaw, hope you’re going to wear that black bikini again.” 

Fusco watched his fake wife make hard, squinty eyes at Looney Tunes; he then walked around to gently nudge the shorter woman to get moving. “C’mon wifey, let’s get you some food before our therapeutic soak.” Shaw let Fusco lead her out of the room before responding to the annoying hacker with a harsh rebuttal. 

Root watched them leave and then turned to Reese, “John, should we decide on an issue we need to discuss or wing it?” The hacker unwrapped a granola bar and started munching on it while looking at Reese with a grimace on his face. 

“Let’s just wing it,” the last thing Reese wanted to do was to actually prepare for his therapy sessions, which he didn’t want to attend to in the first place. For an action packed job, he’s had to be in fake therapy at least three times; and that number was way too high. 

*****

Shaw and Fusco liked to avoid therapy period, let alone a therapy that involved stewing in hot bubbling water. They arrived at the hot tub, or spa as some people say, before Dr. Tinswell showed up. Thankfully, it was outdoors, fairly secluded and had a view of the beach off in the distance. Fusco and Shaw went over some basics while getting into the small bubbling pool.

“We’ve got four kids remember,” said Fusco lowering himself into the spa. He was wearing long, swim trunks and already had sun burned arms from playing golf twice with a red burn around his neck making his chest look more pasty white. Shaw had to hold down a chuckle looking at his ridiculous sunburn on her partner. 

“Lionel, that means people have to believe we’ve had sex four times,” said Shaw as she took off her shirt and shorts revealing a black bikini. 

Without missing a beat Fusco started trailing off names, “There’s Lionel Jr., Leo, Barry who goes by Bear and Sam, short for Samuel,” Fusco splashed some water in his face as he tried to get comfortable in the spa. 

“We’re horribly unoriginal with our fake children’s names,” Shaw whispered to Lionel as to be not heard by Dr. Tinswell who was fast approaching. The petite primary asset then lowered herself into the spa and sat as close as she could to Fusco without having to actually touch him. 

Dr. Tinswell got closer and looked over some notes so Fusco whispered back, “I never get to go undercover like this, it’s kind of fun,” Lionel smiled at Shaw, “You said we.” Shaw just rolled her eyes at him but also couldn’t help a little smile emerge on her lips. 

“Deep undercover mob cartel, now that’s fun,” Shaw whispered back to Fusco while she played with the bubbles popping up on the surface of the water. When Dr. Tinswell turned around to face Shaw and Fusco, they were both playing with the bubbles popping up in the spa. 

“Now this might be unorthodox, some say this hot tub therapy, however I find being in the warm water unleashes some buried truths, the truths we might not even be aware we are hiding or harboring.” Dr. Tinswell put her notes on a chair and addressed the fake couple. “Let’s take twenty deep breathes. Deep long breathes. Let’s get centered.” 

Shaw had never taken so many deep breathes in her life as she had in the past 48 hours. She did a quick glance to Fusco and they both started their deep breath rotation. Halfway through the breathing, Tinswell lowered herself into the spa, still taking the deep breathes herself seriously. When they got to twenty, Tinswell looked at both of them. 

“Can you both tell me what you like about being married to each other?” Tinswell asked both of them. 

Shaw and Fusco looked to each other, as if playing their own silent game of chicken; who would go first. 

Fusco knew his co-worker would not go first, as he probably imagined the lethal petite woman had never wanted to get married, never thought about it and probably never would. So he chose to speak up first, “I like being married. The thing about being married is that you’ve always got someone who’s got your back. You finally got your own team. I mean you’re born into a team, your family but when you find someone who wants to be on your two-person team, that’s really something special.” Fusco stopped for a moment, he cast his eyes down and a wave of sadness seemed to cover his face. “Of course, when you find out your teammate wants to be traded to another team…” Lionel looked off and couldn’t make eye contact with Shaw or Dr. Tinswell, “Maybe you didn’t keep up your side and didn’t always renegotiate contracts to make sure your team was happy, then that’s on you.”

Shaw watched Lionel closely; she had never heard him really talk about his ex-wife. There was what she detected sadness in his eyes. She knew she had to do something since they were in front of Tinswell, plus she kind of didn’t like seeing Fusco sad. So Shaw reached over and put her arm around Fusco’s shoulder. In return Fusco actually put his head on her shoulder. Shaw couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes and shaking her head, then tried to play if off to Tinswell. “It’s okay, Fus…uh fuzzy bear.” Oh, she’s going to regret that action, especially if it got back to Root. 

“And you Sammy?” Dr. Tinswell asked Shaw gently a few moments to let Fusco regain his composure. 

It took a moment for Shaw to realize she was being addressed, “I uh…like the team back thing,” Shaw didn’t want to think of Root but her brain snuck her in there anyway, especially the hacker’s long, lean backside. She did feel Root would always have her back, no matter what even though she never asked her for the help. That thought tied her stomach in knots, which felt somewhat pleasurable yet at the same time torturous. “There are a lot of things about me that…uh, he didn’t know anything about, things he wouldn’t understand, things he couldn’t understand, things he shouldn’t understand. I didn’t think anyone would want to be mixed up with someone like me. I’m a loner. A rebel.” Shaw furrowed her eyes together, concentrated hard on the hot tub bubbles popping up in front of her; she moved her hand back and fourth over them. She made eye contact with Fusco. “Then I became a part of this team and…things changed, maybe even inside…I don’t know. It doesn’t suck sometimes.” Shaw cast her eyes down to the water again. 

“My wife aint’ a poet but she packs a punch with words sometimes,” Fusco had a genuine warm smile directed at Shaw; he patted his fake wife on the back. 

They had to endure a few more round of questions then finally their time was up. Dr. Tinswell left to take a quick break before her next session, which of course was with Reese and Root. As soon as the doctor was far enough out of hearing range, Fusco said to Shaw, “Nice work there Shaw. Although, I’m a little surprised you were quoting Pee Wee’s Big Adventure,” Fusco raised his eyebrows to the petite firecracker. 

“Saw it when I was a kid. It’s about a guy who only needs his bike and nobody else. It left an impression,” said Shaw as she spread her arms out full wide; she gripped each side of the hot tub. Fusco had moved over to the other side after Dr. Tinswell had vacated. They both closed their eyes and enjoyed the relaxing feel of the water. 

Shaw’s senses tingled and she knew Root must be behind her, and sure enough her instincts were correct. Shaw turned around in just time to see Root taking off a thin shawl type of thing she was wearing over her red bikini, the red bikini left little to one’s sexual imagination much to Shaw’s surprise. Before she knew it Root swiftly and smoothly got into the hot tub and was already sitting practically on top of Shaw, once again ignoring any personal space boundaries. The petite primary asset did not want to acknowledge that feeling Root brushing up against her repeatedly while both of them were barely clothed in warm bubbling water made everything seem out of focus; well except the throbbing between her legs. And then realized to her horror that she still had her arms outstretched and Root was leaning her head against her arm, thus appearing that she might be enjoying this contact. She pushed the hacker’s head off her arm, she then crossed her arms in front of her chest. Root watched this action while she licked her lips, while she managed to rub up against Shaw a few times with her arm and leg. 

“How did your hot tub therapy go Shaw? Did you and Fusco declare any deep feelings?”

“Yeah, about how much we dislike certain co-workers, it was a real bonding moment,” Shaw said while pushing Root’s leg away which only caused the hacker to outstretch her arms this time, putting her arm behind the shorter woman’s head. Fusco shook his head and got out of the hot tub fearing the two women would start fighting or something else much worse. 

Shaw moved to get out of the hot tub and to get away from Root in a red bikini because that was something she couldn’t unsee and her damn hormones had that on auto-play already; her hormones were such bastards at times. As Shaw shifted to move, so did Root so that their bodies kept brushing up against each other. Finally, Shaw had enough and reached under water and pulled hard on Root’s leg to totally submerge the hacker. However, the taller woman grabbed onto the shorter woman’s leg, which prevented her from standing up. Shaw lunged for the side, while Root came up behind her flinging her dripping long hair. Shaw spun around and grabbed onto Root’s bikini bottom, she slide her hand underneath the fabric of the side, the action elicited a moan from the taller woman.

“If you don’t let me get out of this germ infested soup brew I’m going to rip this and you’ll have to have your therapy session with John and the doctor lady pantless.” They both stared intensely into each other’s eyes; Root didn’t want to break the contact as she was really enjoying having Shaw’s hand almost literally down her pants. She moved her hand on top of Shaw’s. 

“You do realize that means it would be the second article of clothing you have torn off me in the last 24 hours,” Root said rather smugly to Shaw. The petite primary asset removed her hand as fast as she could from Root, which was kind of difficult since the taller woman’s hand wouldn’t get out of the way. 

Root did realize much to her disappointment, they had to stop this, Tinswell could be back any minute and it might look a little weird two supposedly straight married women practically wrestling each other in the spa. Then again, it might just be something off one of those housewife shows. Maybe they could play off they were fighting over or for their men, although as talented as she was at fooling people; Root didn’t think even she could pull that one off. Shaw had roughly gotten a hold of her wrist, so she took the chance with her other hand to cup the shorter woman’s ass which of course only made petite firecracker angrier. When Shaw twisted her wrist a little, she held down a wince and let go of Shaw entirely. The petite primary asset stepped back, breathing heavily while giving some space between them. She turned around and pulled herself out of the spa. The hacker splashed some water as the shorter woman walked by. When Shaw was out of sight Reese appeared in his demure, classy long board shorts, he took off his shirt and eased into the hot tub while smirking at Rook. 

“I’m surprised she hasn’t killed you yet in your sleep,” Reese said with a nod to Root. 

“I am too,” Root smiled at John. She had a feeling John knew almost as soon as she knew herself about her feelings for Shaw, he’s a guy that might not talk much and when he does it’s at a very low register; but he’s damn intuitive and observant. 

Suddenly, Dr. Tinswell appeared and ready for their session. She started it the same way she started Shaw and Fusco’s with the deep breathing; then she settled in and starting asking questions of Reese and Root. 

“What do you each really like about each other?” asked Dr. Tinswell while focusing on them. 

Reese internally begged that Root would go first and thankfully she did. 

“John is incredibly loyal, to a fault almost. He’s incredibly dependable, again almost to a fault. I used to be…mean, kind of unkind about that, however in the past year I have really come to appreciate his loyalty and his dependability. Even when he might be mad or annoyed with me, he’ll still be there to help. I compare you to a dog sometimes because they are one of the finest species,” Root realized she wasn’t making anything up; over time she had really grown to appreciate and even like John. 

“What about the monkey reference?” asked John with a slight smirk directed at the hacker. 

“Sorry, about that one,” Root looked down and then back up again into Reese’s eyes, “If I haven’t said it before…thank you John for everything you do…and for always…Harold.” She was truly thankful that Harold had the greatest protector to always keep him safe. 

“Who’s Harold?” asked an intrigued Dr. Tinswell. 

“Uh…a friend,” said Reese.

“Our dog,” Root said realizing her and John said different things at the same time. “He’s more than a friend, he’s family.” 

Dr. Tinswell seemed to buy that, so she moved onto Reese’s answer to the question, “John, what is it about Sam that you like?”

“She’s unpredictable…to a fault almost.” Reese looked over at Root, he had a kind smile on his face. “She has great timing. I'm glad we're on the same team.” Reese continued smiling at Root, who smiled back at him.

“He’s terribly romantic,” Root smiled back at Reese. 

“That’s excellent. Now lets see you express that emotion physically,” pushed Dr. Tinswell. 

“Doc, I don’t think that is necessary,” Reese looked truly uncomfortable as did Root a little. 

“Agree. How about John and I go back to our room alone and we will report back later,” although, just to appease the doctor and to hopefully expedite an end to this therapy session; Root leaned over and gave a short, lingering kiss on John’s lips while the tall primary asset shook his and squinted his eyes hard at his fake wife. Thankfully, Joan emerged from around the corner and went over to whisper something to Dr. Tinswell; who then had to excuse herself and thanked them both for an enlightening session. 

Shaw had been around the corner out of sight watching her teammate’s session and didn’t like seeing Root lean over and actually kiss Reese on the lips, what the hell was that for; it’s not like the world was at stake or anything. The flame she had burning all over body left and chill ran up her spine when she saw the hacker do that action. Suddenly, Fusco appeared and startled her. 

“I’m sure those fruity drinks are still leaving your brain a little fuzzy there partner, just so you know; you’re staring at Coca Puffs pretty hard. Are you spying on their therapy session,” asked an amused Fusco. 

“Just making sure our teammates are safe,” Shaw didn’t even believe her own lie. 

Root moved to the other side of the hot tub and outstretched her arms to relax, Reese did the same as soon as Tinswell had left followed by Joan, who did manage to once again touch both of their arms on the way out. As soon as they closed their eyes for a brief moment they felt someone practically dive bomb into the small hot tub causing major waves in the small space. Root didn’t have to open her eyes to know it was Shaw and she couldn’t hide her wide grin because she was certain that meant the petite firecracker saw her kiss John. She noticed that Shaw sat somewhat close to her, well close for Shaw. 

“I can’t believe it’s been over 48 hours since I fired a gun,” said Shaw while watching her teammates. 

“And it’s been over 48 hours since I had my hands on some computer hardware. Maybe it’s good for us to unplug and uncock. Recharge our batteries,” Root opened her eyes to stare at Shaw, and once again move closer so their legs were touching. 

“I’m always fully charged,” remarked Shaw as she bumped her knee against Root’s knee. She didn’t know how much longer she could take all this physical contact with the hacker with no payoff, she was seriously rethinking her no sex with Root rule. She might seriously have some kind of sexual spontaneous combustion if she didn’t put her mouth on several key body parts of Root. 

“That you are,” Root replied back to Shaw while she bumped her knee back to Shaw’s. She really wished Reese wasn’t in the small pool with them. She was beginning to feel almost confident that if she did lunge at Shaw and sucked on her neck again at this moment, they might actually disappear back to her room for a few days. The hacker was past just wanting Shaw now, it was fast becoming a primal need; especially after all this touching, brushing, sucking and rubbing up against each other. 

“Hate to bust up the threesome, but Glasses says he needs us now on the beach. Keep your suits on, it’s diving time,” said Fusco as he motioned for his teammates to follow. 

*****

As the four teammates approached Finch on the beach they saw three sets of scuba diving gear ready for them. Shaw and Reese were experienced divers so they started instructing Fusco how to put on his gear and what to do and what not to do. Shaw glanced over to Root. 

“Are you coming?” Shaw asked Root as she put on her scuba diving gear and the hacker in return walked over and helped the shorter woman fasten the equipment in place. The shorter woman rolled her eyes, yet however begrudgingly took the assistance. 

Before Root could answer, Finch spoke up, “No, Ms. Groves is needed on shore with me.”

“Sounds like I’m land locked. Good luck Shaw,” Root grabbed the regulator and gently positioned it in front of Shaw’s mouth, which surprisingly the petite primary asset opened and allowed in as the tall brunette pushed it in slowly. Of course Root would rather be putting something else in Shaw’s mouth and that message was delivered pretty clearly to the shorter woman. Shaw then brought up her hand to reposition the regulator and shake her head to Root, who smiled her cocky smile in return. 

As soon as the three teammates were geared up, Finch gave them exact area coordinates to look for something unusual or unexpected. The three of them walked out slowly into the ocean and disappeared. 

“Harry, am I really needed on shore? Or are you worried about my implant. You know it’s perfectly safe to scuba dive, allowing I don’t go past a certain depth,” Root had put on shirt and shorts over her red bikini, she turned her head to study Harold. 

“I would rather not risk it, Root.” Finch knew using her preferred name would garner her attention and also, possibly induce a warm reception in being left out of the under water expedition. 

“I shouldn’t probably tell you then that yesterday I jumped off a cliff,” Root gave a shrug with a small smile to Harold. 

“Yes, I’m well aware of you and Ms. Shaw’s reckless hiking. You two need to be more careful, although I highly doubt you will,” Finch looked down at the tablet he was holding, he showed it to Root so she could see the trackers placed on their teammates and how close they were getting to finding the signal buried out to sea. 

“Any idea what they might find out there?” asked Root while still staring at the tablet before handing it back to Finch. 

“Not any substantial guesses,” said Finch as he stood and gazed out to sea. 

Root and Finch stood on the beach keeping watch over the shoreline and waiting for their teammates to come back up. 

Suddenly, after about thirty minutes Reese emerged from the water carrying Shaw in his arms; he started throwing off his gear as he went with Fusco trailing behind him picking stuff up. 

“What happened?” asked Root as she rushed towards Reese and Shaw. 

As soon as they got some distance from the water Reese put Shaw down on the beach, “Shaw got stung by a jellyfish.” Reese had a very concerned look on his face. “One of the worst kind as far as I could tell.” 

“She was saving my ass,” Fusco huffed, he was out of breath and a worried sick look on his face as he looked down at Shaw. “It should have been me.” 

“That’s because I knew this would kill your wimpy ass,” Shaw spat out very hoarsely and between labored breaths. Root dropped to the sand and started examining Shaw’s body, looking for stingers from the jellyfish. Harold looked on with horrified expression on his face. 

“Maybe someone needs to you know…on her,” Fusco made a motion with his hands as his puzzled teammates stared at him. 

“Lionel, if you’re referring to urine; that can actually make it worse if the stingers are still in her skin. Does anyone have their room key card on hand?” asked Root, Fusco and Reese checked their pockets. Fusco especially looked on confused. Harold handed over a room key card. 

Root took the key card and moved over to examine Shaw’s leg. “Sameen, I’m going to try and remove all the stingers, hold on.” Root motioned to Reese and Fusco to help hold down Shaw, she then scraped off miniscule tentacle stingers attached to Shaw’s leg while the shorter woman thrashed in between Reese and Fusco. However, the thrashing slowed down once all the stingers were removed. Root put her hand to Shaw’s forehead with a very concerned look on her face. 

“Now urination might provide some relief before carrying her up to the doctor, at least a very brief small relief,” Root turned to Fusco and Reese with somewhat stoic faces while all three bending over the petite woman. 

Gritted through her teeth Shaw spat out, “No. Nobody do that. I’m fine,” again through very labored breathing. 

Of course all three teammates could tell Shaw wasn’t fine, she looked in extreme agony. “I got you partner,” Fusco started to untie his long swim trunks. 

“You know I will too Shaw,” Reese looked on concerned. 

“No, no,” Shaw unsuccessfully not playing off her pain at all as sweat poured off all over her body. She kind of hated that she only wanted one of them to help, “Just do it…Root.” 

Root was completely shocked by this request, but then jumped into action to squat over Shaw’s leg. 

“Boys, could you turn around and make a little privacy wall please,” Root slid down her shorts and bikini bottom. “You know if you wanted to see me completely bottomless, you just had to ask.” She positioned herself over Shaw’s leg and let nature take it’s course. Root stared into Shaw’s eyes when the petite firecracker looked her way. 

“Do not make eye contact with me while you do that,” Shaw barely managed to force out in between jolts of intense pain. 

“Can’t help it, helps me concentrate.”

“You’re such a freak,” just then a small wave of relief hit Shaw as the bodily fluid hit her leg, “Oh God!” Shaw didn’t realize she said this so loud and she was unprepared how this gross act relieved a little of the explosive pain. And a little helped a lot when this much pain was involved. 

“Hope this isn’t a fetish for you,” Root tired to lighten the moment as she pulled her bikini bottom and shorts back on and moved over to check Shaw’s vital signs and wipe some sweat from her face. She then stood up and put her hand on John’s shoulder. 

“Let’s get Shaw to the doctor,” Reese bent down and picked up Shaw in his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for suggestion of hot tub therapy by T_Ninja!! The jellyfish part of course completely stolen from Friends, I did find out researching that course of action is not recommended. So very valuable thing learned :-)


	7. The One Where Shaw Got Stung By A Jellyfish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much reading! Sorry, for typos and mistakes, no proofreading. I can NOT believe Team Machine went on a picnic! A picnic! I didn’t think it was possible to love the show more. And yes, Team Machine was going to go on a beach picnic but it’s actually canon now. This part I think got wacky and subpar because I feel partly destroyed after 6,741. Hugs for everybody.

Thankfully, the team got Shaw to the doctor on the resort property pretty quickly and he was able to examine and figure out what exactly stung the petite teammate. All four teammates stood around the examining room while the doctor checked vitals, while Shaw continued to have labored breathing and sweat pouring off her with extreme looks of pain on her face. Root looked on with extreme concern, as soon as the doctor was done with his exam she moved next to Shaw and gently pushed the mated wet hair from her forehead, she then continued to stroke her hair in what she hoped was calming for her favorite primary asset. 

“Well, it looks like she was stung by a rare breed of jellyfish migrated from Australia called Irukandji, or at one of it’s species. They are becoming more common in this area, they have even been documented in Florida as well.” As the doctor continued to speak, the four teammates all looked to each other with dread. “It’s probably the most venomous jellyfish in the world and one of the most dangerous species period.” The doctor leaned over to check Shaw’s vitals again, his patient gritted her teeth even more than usual and continued her very labored breathing. 

The doctor turned to face the four teammates and address them, “For the next 8 to 12 hours, she’s going to go through hell.”

“Don’t sugar coat it doc,” said Fusco, he looked very worried about his fake wife. 

“Some studies have said that the pain level of an Irukandji sting on a scale of 1-10 is about a 12. Massive doses of morphine seem to have no effect,” said the doctor in a very grim tone. 

“Sounds like Shaw’s kind of party,” said Root trying to lighten the mood. “Is there any permanent damage?” she added looking on with concern on her face. 

“No, thankfully no permanent damage. She’ll be in a hellish state for the duration. Besides the physical pain, there will be emotional pain. There will be intense feelings of abyssal depression and impending doom and in very rare cases they are mixed in with…what can only be described as sexual heat like state,” said the doctor while looking over Shaw trying to decide if she was indeed a rare case. “Again, that part is rare.” 

“Sounds like…Root’s kind of party,” Shaw breathed out hard in between her clenched jaws, “So keep her away from me if that happens guys.” Shaw looked hard at Reese, Fusco and Finch; all three men looked very uncomfortable. If anything of that nature were to happen, none of them wanted to fight Shaw or Root, that was pretty much an unspoken head nod between the guys. 

“Sameen, you don’t trust me?” asked Root in a mock tone while she continued to push the petite’s sweat soaked hair from her face, the truth was she didn’t know if she could trust herself either if Shaw were to direct a sexual heat like state towards her. However, she wondered too, she might not be Shaw’s target and that thought almost made Root want to enter her own state of impending doom. 

Shaw began to assess and realize, she didn’t trust herself around Root anymore; she had a ripped red shirt to prove it. She was barely holding off on ravaging the tall brunette teammate as it was, add a sexual heat like craze and she was definitely doomed along with her impending doom delusions. Shaw couldn’t even describe the pain she was in, it was nothing like she ever felt before, the doctor was right; this was about a 12. 

The doctor went over and prepared a shot of morphine. “I’m going to give you some morphine, it probably won’t help, in the off case it does,” the doctor administered the shot while adding in a deadbeat tone, “There’s not much we can do for her except keep an eye on her. I would recommend keeping her here or on bed rest in her room. She will have incredible lower back pain, relentless vomiting and nausea, full body cramps, profuse sweating, extreme muscle spasms and the uptick of adrenaline, which will cause the indescribable feelings of impending doom. Her world will be ending, and she might make requests of all of you to end hers.” All her teammates looked around to each to other looking very distressed feelings that showed on their shared faces. 

Shaw noted the doctor said she would have feelings of impending doom, so maybe this would be the one time not having feelings will come in very handy. 

“Let’s take her back to our room,” Root said to Reese with him nodding and agreeing with her. A nurse had brought in some shorts and shirt with the resort logo on them for Shaw to wear over her bikini. 

“Hey, she’s my wife, don’t you think she needs to come back to our room?” asked Fusco smiling at Shaw, trying to lighten her mood. He patted her arm too; he didn’t like seeing his fake wife in so much pain. He was eternally grateful he wasn’t going through this pain though; he absolutely knew for certain Shaw was way tougher than he was with this kind of pain. 

“I pick their room…smells better,” spat out Shaw pointing to her taller teammates. 

“It might not after 8 to 12 hours of profuse sweating and vomiting,” observed Finch, “Ms. Shaw, I’m going to analyze the data that was retrieved from your underwater expedition. Please, get some rest. I do hope this passes quickly.” Finch began to move towards the door, “Please, keep me posted on how she’s doing. I’ll have the resort staff send provisions for you.” Finch came back to Shaw and briefly squeezed her arm then turned to Root, “Please, take care of her.” 

Root nodded to Harold, “Will do, Harry.” 

Suddenly, a nurse entered the room with a wheelchair. “I can wheel you to your room,” she said kindly to Shaw. 

“Hell no,” Shaw growled fiercely, “I’ll walk…the morphine is already kicking in.” Shaw felt like she was lying to herself, but she would be damned if she was riding in a wheelchair, she had some dignity on this silly ass mission. A mission so far where she had to see Root pee twice, and unbelievably on her leg for one of those times and listen to Fusco fart and snore. And had to see Reese in yoga pants. 

Root and Reese looked to each other not believing Shaw at all, the petite woman could barely speak in between her labored breathing and profuse sweating. 

The doctor added before he left the room, “There’s also a 30% of heart failure. So keep an eye on her heart rate as much as you can.” The doctor also gave them a few more shots of morphine, “Good luck.” 

Again, Root and Reese looked back and fourth to each other with alarm and concern. 

The tall brunette then let her gaze drift off and asked the best source, “Is all that information completely accurate?” She stood momentarily frozen and transfixed, “Okay, well I guess I don’t have to taze the doctor after all, still that man has zero bedside manner,” she said mainly to Reese while Fusco looked on confused. 

“Okay, sunshine, let’s go,” said Fusco while going over to help Shaw get off the bed where she swatted him away. She did eventually let Reese hold onto her arm, then Fusco too, Root trailed behind them. 

As the four teammates, aka the two fake married couples, made their way back to the room so Shaw could rest. Out of nowhere, Joan came barreling up to them excitedly. “There you guys are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you. You four really like to hang out together, fast friends I guess.” Joan eyed all four people, they looked pretty disheveled, and the short grumpy woman looked even more unaccommodating than usual. “The race is about to start on the beach. Gotta save the treasure and build the castle,” she smiled weakly at three uninterested people and one hostile one. 

“Race? Save a treasure?” Shaw started pulling herself away from Fusco and Reese who had been helping her walk. “People are in danger…we haven’t seen the numbers. Gotta save the numbers,” Shaw mumbled. 

“My wife Sammy here got stung by a jellyfish, just been with the doctor. The sting and pain meds are making her loopy. Gotta get her back to the room,” Fusco said to Joan pushing Shaw to get past the irritating assistant. 

“Oh my,” Joan looked disgusted, “I do hope you’re feeling better later today. Well, that leaves you two to round out the competition,” Joan said to Root and Reese. 

There was no way Root was leaving Shaw’s side for some idiotic therapy session when her primary asset was in so much pain. “Actually, Joan, we have to miss it. We are going to help Lionel with Sammy, she’s in tremendous pain.” 

“No, I’m not,” Shaw very quickly jabbed Fusco’s ribcage with her elbow causing him to let go of her, “People are in danger,” Shaw mumbled again then surprisingly took off in a sprint to the shocked expressions of her three teammates.

“How did she do that?” asked a befuddled Fusco turning to Root and Reese. 

“Guess the morphine really did kick in,” Reese said as he watched Root sprint after Shaw. 

“And I'm guessing those impending doom scenarios which just so happens a lot with you people,” said Fusco to Reese’s distressed expression on his face. They both ran off in the direction of their fake wives while Joan stood there left behind very confused. 

*****

Shaw ran frantically around the resort until she found the other couples on the beach, Root chasing after her but never being able to catch up to stop the shorter woman. Root realized she really needed to work on her cardio, maybe tag along with Shaw on some runs in the future. There were five rowboats lined up on the beach, Dr. Tinswell was addressing the three couples and of course two spaces were empty for the Fuscos and the Reese’s. 

Dr. Tinswell was just finishing her assignment address when Shaw ran up, followed by Root, “…so go fourth and find the treasure on the small island just yonder there. Stay for a bit on the tiny island. Enjoy the peace. Enjoy each other’s company. Then return here and build your castle together. Build a new bond together, " Tinswell finished with her trademark dramatic hand gestures. 

Shaw wasn’t listening, she hoped into a rowboat much to Root’s bewilderment, “Sh…Sammy, what are doing? We need to get you back to the doctor.” Root didn’t know if the others could hear her. 

“I’m rowing this boat, there’s something out there,” Shaw was already in position and was pushing off into the ocean, “…could be a smoke monster,” she said under her breath. Root was shocked, the only thing for her to do was to wade out in the water and pull herself into the rowboat. Shaw was feverishly rowing the boat toward the tiny island about a half-mile away that Dr. Tinswell was instructing the other couples towards. Shaw’s strong rowing had them far ahead of other couples, of course that wasn’t hard as no one was as strong as the petite firecracker. 

Root squinted and could see Reese and Fusco on the shore getting into a rowboat of their own, she did love those boys for caring so much about her favorite primary asset. 

When the rowboat hit the shore, Shaw sprung out and started running again. Root tried to grab her, out of reach and fell down on the beach. “I thought she was supposed to have horrible lower back pain? How is she running?” 

“Well, Shaw is strong, maybe the doom delusions are out pacing the physical pain,” Reese said over the communication link. “We’ll be there soon.” 

Root looked off in the distance to see Shaw running into a small forest, she stood up and ran after her. “Sameen, wait! What are you looking for?”

Shaw had stopped and Root finally caught up with her. Shaw grabbed Root’s shirt hard right in the middle of her chest and then pointed back to the main island, but to the other side of the resort where the scientists were, “See look over there. Everything is going to end.” Shaw’s eyes were wild and sweat was pouring off her body. Root put her hand over Shaw’s hand. 

“Shaw it’s just the sting, everything is okay. Well, not okay…never mind. Everything is okay at this moment. Never really know with Samaritan lurking around…don’t think about that, might cause more doom delusions,” Root was surprised that Shaw hadn’t pulled away from her yet, not only did she still have her hand on Shaw’s but they were standing in each other’s personal space. Then suddenly, Shaw grabbed Root’s hand, started running and yanking the tall brunette along with her. They ran deeper into the forest until they found a cave opening, which Shaw dragged them into without a hesitation at all. 

“You know why caves are great for sex?” Shaw stopped and stared into Root’s eyes with a way too mischievous grin on her face, “...the humidity and the echoes.” Shaw let go of Root’s hand only to discard her shirt and untie her bikini top; she tossed them both to the side and pulled Root further into the cave. The taller brunette did manage to grab them both before being dragged again by her feisty crush. Root had to admit, she was a little in shock, her brain was telling her to plant her feet and not go further into the cave with one jellyfish stung sexual heat crazed topless Shaw. 

Root thought this was going to be her hardest mission yet. Watching over an induced jellyfish sex crazed Shaw topless, making innuendos towards her for the first time ever; she needed to get to the boys so they could help her. She really worried whether she would have any self-control when it came to the petite firecracker on jellyfish brain. She looked at Shaw who was leering at her pretty hard and topless. She needed to find the guys fast or hoped they would find her. She thought she needed to keep it as business as possible. When Shaw finally slowed them down, deeper into the cave where it was almost completely pitch black; dripping water, stalagmites and stalactites everywhere, condensation pouring off Shaw and the cave itself. Root couldn’t stop gawking at Shaw topless, her heart was pounding so loud in her chest it sounded like a timpani or at least twenty of them beating; she hoped Shaw’s heart was not racing as much, she really needed to check it. This was new territory for the hacker, how could she be this turned on and this worried at the same time. 

Shaw tugged on Root’s shirt to get it off, “Shaw, remember we’re on a mission. Let’s go back to the bemfff,” Root didn’t get to finish because Shaw’s mouth was on her mouth and instead of pulling or pushing right away, she froze. She wanted and waited so long to kiss Shaw and never would she have guessed these particular circumstances. Before Root could stop it, because her mind kept telling her that she had stop it, Shaw’s tongue was exploring her mouth and her body was pressing into the shorter woman’s body like it was in her DNA programmed to always reciprocate to this woman. She was definitely drowning, she was on sensory overload, despite the extreme physical state Shaw was going through she was still the sweetest thing Root have ever tasted. The only thing she wanted was to ravage Sameen right there on all these stalagmite formations. She knew she had to stop this kiss, this smoldering kiss, this kiss like no one had ever kissed her before in her life. Then she reminded herself, this kiss that was brought on by a jellyfish. If Shaw remembered this kiss she was going to kill her and not in a fun, sexy way. Then something even more wonderfully worse happened, Shaw started sucking on her tongue and her body completely betrayed her brain signals by latching onto Sameen’s hips, pulling their bodies even harder together with one of them whimpering and one moaning, Root didn’t know which one she was. Root wondered if she could actually black out from a kiss. 

“Root! Are you in here?” shouted Reese from the opening of the cave. Root pulled away from Shaw much to the shorter woman’s anger and in fact she grabbed onto Root’s shirt and yanked her back. Root’s shirt was completely soaked from Shaw’s sweat. 

“Let’s go further up in the cave. I want to spelunk you,” Shaw said as she continued to wrangle Root’s shirt off. Root grabbed her hands to stop, which gave Shaw an angle to latch her lips onto the taller woman’s neck. Root immediately felt her eyes roll in the back of her head as Shaw sucked on her neck and her hands traveled down to firmly grip and grope her ass. She could hear John getting closer, she had to push Shaw back, she kept reminding herself this was the jellyfish brain talking; damn wicked jellyfish. Root was quite taken a back; she felt like this jellyfish brain Shaw was giving her delusions. Shaw continued to grope Root while the hacker tried to move away as John got closer. Root got Shaw’s shirt and tried to put it over her head before John was upon them. 

Reese walked up and saw his female co-workers somewhat tangled up with each other, Root was unsuccessfully trying to pull Shaw’s shirt over head, getting her own head caught in the loop as well since she couldn’t pry the shorter woman off her neck. Her favorite primary asset appeared to be going for some kind of a hickey record on the taller woman’s neck. 

“Are you both okay? How is Shaw doing?” Reese asked the two women, who were both breathing heavily. And Root tried to pull her head out of the shirt while getting Shaw to stay in the shirt. Reese was very cautious as to not get to close to the two women, to give them space while Root got Shaw’s shirt on. He didn’t want to know why Shaw’s shirt was off. 

Root looked over at Reese, she hoped she didn’t look quite as flummoxed and completely aroused as she was; she hoped she was hiding it but she was betting her dilated pupils were giving her away. “Well, the doomed the stage has taken a back seat to the uh…other stage,” Root said as she tried to untangle herself from Shaw, and much to her disappointment, pull her neck away from the petite firecracker’s lips, which had gotten reattached after the shirt was on. Shaw did not like this at all and reached out to pull Root back to her. 

Reese was surprised to see Shaw’s hands reaching out and grabbing onto Root roughly, like a child whose favorite toy was just taken away. “Have you checked her heart rate recently?”

“She’s a little hard to get to stay still,” said Root while gently swatting Shaw’s roaming hands, “And just so you know, nothing happened…well, almost nothing. Although, I’m really glad you showed up when you did.” 

Reese reached out and put his fingers on Shaw’s wrist, she then put her fingers to Root’s neck where she leaned in again about to start her imitation of a vacuum cleaner again. “Let’s go make your heart rate sky rocket,” Shaw pulled Root closer to her while Reese was still trying to gauge her pulse, his eyebrows couldn’t go any higher. 

“I told you, its getting weird,” said Root, “Maybe it’s not just directed at me,” the hacker did wonder, she took Shaw’s hand and put it on John’s neck. Shaw immediately withdrew her hand, reached out yanked Root close to her again so their bodies were fully pressed up against each other, with John standing right there it was extremely awkward. 

“We could go test that theory out on Fusco too?” Reese motioned to the opening of the cave. “Let’s get Shaw back to the resort.” He reached out to take Shaw’s arm, which she promptly kneed him hard in the groin area. Reese doubled over and fell down. “You might be on your own on this one.” For a tough guy, this time he did look in pain as stumbled over in a fetal position on the cave floor. 

“Sorry, John,” Root said as Shaw pulled her along to the opening of the cave. 

“Let’s go back to your room. I need you,” Shaw said while interlacing her fingers with Root’s fingers as they headed back to the rowboat. 

“You sound almost normal,” Root said while glancing down at their interlocked fingers and couldn’t help a smile spread across her face despite leaving one of her teammates behind writhing in pain. 

“Of course I sound normal. Root, I need your help, like any other mission. You gonna help me or not?” asked a determined Shaw as she stopped to plant a searing kiss on Root’s lips, which once again left the hacker too swooned to respond properly until she heard Fusco’s voice calling after them. Shaw heard it too and said, “We gotta find the hatch too before the smoke monster does.” There was nothing like hearing the words ‘smoke monster’ to kill one’s libido. Root opened her eyes and saw Shaw looking frantically around, and then she saw Fusco fast approaching them with a bewildered look on his face as he looked between the two of them and John on the floor in the distance. 

The detective noticed of course the hickey that was already forming on Root’s neck, “Let me guess, you got bit by a spider too?” asked Fusco in a mock tone. He didn’t really blame the tall, crazy brunette if she gave in a little to her crush because he was pretty sure that if the tables were turned his fake wife might do the same. He was guessing spending every night so far in their room was more than just his snoring, although he had been told it was legendary. However, the grumpy little pill here wasn’t in her right mind, so hopefully Coca Puffs wasn’t crossing to many boundaries. 

Suddenly, Finch’s voice was coming over their communication links, “Ms. Groves, where are you? How is Ms. Shaw? I think uncovered what the beacon might be; it’s not good news. Are Mr. Reese and Mr. Fusco with you?”

"Sorry, Glasses. We'll have to get back to you. Thelma & Louise here seem to have assaulted your dark knight," Fusco walked past his two female co-workers to help his partner on the ground; he noticed the taller one tried unsuccessfully to push away the shorter woman’s wandering hands. Just as he was almost past his shorter co-worker, she tripped him and then sucker punched him. Fusco hunched over in pain while groaning, he looked very much like his other male co-worker; the petite hyped up firecracker could really pack some power.

“Shaw!” Root looked shocked that her petite firecracker took out yet another teammate, “Fusco, are you okay?”

“Let me guess, she’s onto that other rare state now,” groaned out Fusco, “not surprised that Shaw’s rare. She’s getting away there Sexy Puffs,” the detective pointed to Shaw sprinting away and headed for the beach. 

Root did notice that the wandering, groping hands had stilled for a moment. “Help John, I’ll try and get Shaw back to the resort. Meet you there,” said the tall brunette as she begrudgingly started running after her jellyfish infected teammate, she felt like she had enough cardio for a very long time. By the time she almost caught up to Shaw, the shorter woman had already boarded the rowboat again and floated a bit out to sea. Root actually rolled her eyes and she started swimming towards the rowboat, she was beginning to think she might need to drug her favorite primary asset again. 

Once Root was fully in the boat and soaking wet, Shaw started rowing more strongly until they were about halfway between the tiny island and the main land. Root looked up and saw they had stopped, “Shaw are you okay?”

“I will be,” Shaw then lunged for Root.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for anyone who has ever been stung by a jellyfish, I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful or belittle it, I just read an article about the Irukandi and it sounds terrifying and fascinating. I slightly borrowed or stole an idea of a sex heat from the great story Wolves by Nesi23 - read it! Thanks for the inspiration! And I stole from Lost and Parks and Rec too.


	8. Take Me Home Tonight (or to the nearest hollowed out tree in the woods)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the support of T_Ninja and Nesi23! This has been a rough week, rough. Big hugs to everybody.

Root ducked fast as Shaw lunged for her, the tall brunette managed to maneuver to the other side of the rowboat without falling out into the ocean or capsizing the boat thankfully. Shaw groaned loudly and hissed at Root, they were playing a cat and mouse game and the perky psycho was winning at this moment. They were seated across from each other again. Shaw took both oars in her hands and rowed hard until the little boat was in the middle between the main land and the little island. As soon as the motion stopped, Root quickly grabbed one of the oars and pushed it between her and Shaw, as a kind of barrier to stop the overly amorous firecracker from lunging at her again. Shaw grabbed onto the oar and started slowly pulling it hard, inching it closer to her, the cat pulling the mouse to it’s clutches. Root knew she was no match for Shaw’s strength. 

“You can spank me with the oar if you want,” Shaw said while raising her eyebrows and locking eyes with Root. 

Root realized she needed to let go of the oar because Shaw was using it to pull her closer to her, which was not good, especially if she was going to kiss her again. Root didn’t know if she could handle any more Shaw kisses. The Shaw kisses were way too intense and all she wanted to do as move in and live in them forever. Her brain did tell her repeatedly they were only kissing because of a jellyfish sting, still the logical parts of her body where losing majorly to the erotic parts. On the other hand, bless the jellyfish that stung her favorite primary asset and for her crush being so strong and pushing Lionel out of the way. Root didn’t want to think how Lionel would have been in this situation; it would have been a horror movie, the messy, really gory, gross kind. 

Before Root knew it, Shaw started tugging on the oar again. Her grip was very strong and firm. It was a tug of war and Root was losing. Every inch Shaw pulled hard on the oar brought her prey that much closer to her. Soon there was no barrier between them. Shaw had a predatory look on her face as she inched closer to Root, still it was clear to see the libido charged firecracker was in pain as sweat continued to pour off her body, with occasional winces and labored breathing. Root wished there was something she could do to help Shaw, except the obvious as she wasn’t entirely sure if that rare sex heat craze thing was actually causing physical pain, as in say the line of blue balls, or if it was more psychological like the impending doom delusions. 

“Are you in pain? You know, anywhere specific?” asked Root; she could tell Shaw was trying a different approach this time instead of lunging at her again. Shaw inched up off her seat and crawled on the short space of the rowboat to kneel in front of Root. 

“I’m hot just like an oven, I need some lovin’. I can’t hold it much longer, it’s getting stronger and stronger…” Shaw gently placed her hands on Root’s thighs, which caused goose bumps explosion all over the taller brunette’s body. 

“Sameen? Are you okay?” Root reached and put her hand on Shaw’s forehead to check her temperature, an action that seemed to incite the fevered woman even more.

“When I get that feeling…” Shaw reached up and gently took Root’s hand from her forehead and placed kisses in the palm of her hand. 

“Oh gawd…” Root had a feeling where this going now, and she had to stop herself from giggling, fearing that would spur on the engorged petite firecracker even more. 

“I neeeed sexual healing. Let’s make love tonight, cause you do it right,” Shaw then trailed kisses from Root’s hand up her arm. 

“I actually hope The Machine can’t pick up any of this, and definitely not Samaritan, think of the blackmail material. Sameen Shaw…spoken word singing Mavin Gaye to one analog interface,” Root shook her head; she couldn’t shake the extreme goofy grin on her face. Clearly, Sameen was out of her mind right now. Clearly, this jellyfish brain is the only thing on the planet that could surrender one lethal primary asset Shaw into a silly hot mess, still dangerous just in a sexed up horny toad kind of way. 

“I got sick this mornin’, a sea was stormin’ inside of me,” Shaw paused and looked deeply into Root’s eyes, “Baby…I think I’m capsizin’,” Shaw took that moment to slowly reach out and snake her arm around Root’s waist, then gently pulled their torsos together. 

Okay, Root thought that was totally unfair. She could understand the groping, grabbing, pinching and sucking; but this, low guttural spoken word fuck me lyrics move, this jellyfish infused primary asset was not playing fair by any means. Root felt pretty defenseless against sexy make out songs being dished out by one gorgeous primary asset. 

“The waves are risin’ and risin’…” Shaw placed kisses along Root’s collarbone. 

“Never took you for a Marvin Gaye fan,” Root didn’t know how to stop this romantic crazed onslaught, even though she loved every second of it. 

“I like Nina Simone too…Are you hip to what I’m sayin’, If you are then let’s start swayin’,” before Root could answer, Shaw pounced on her mouth and started kissing her fiercely, the tall brunette let out a loud moan which spurred the sexually charged firecracker even more. Root couldn’t help herself, she kissed back just as strong. They were both completely lost in each other. Shaw lifted her mouth just a sliver from Root’s mouth, and then grabbed Root’s hand and placed where she needed it the most. “Root…please…”

Before Root could take her hand away, they were both jostled hard to one side while Reese and Fusco’s rowboat slammed into them. 

“Need some help there Ms. Hanky Panky?” said Fusco interrupting the two women, Shaw sprawled on top of Root after they were jostled over. 

“We are just getting to the hanky panky part Lionel,” Shaw leered down at Root, “You need to leave so I can worship this fine piece of ass.” 

Both Reese and Fusco made mildly disgusted faces at Shaw, then looked to Root who just shrugged while pinned down under her favorite primary asset. 

“I don’t like the Freaky Friday switch, it’s really creepy,” said a definitely creeped out Fusco. He reached out and pulled the two boats together. 

Reese then swiftly swung his leg around and straddled both boats; he then motioned to Fusco who moved to lift Shaw off of Root. This proved impossible so Reese took an oar and pried the two women apart from each other. He then reached for Root, she reluctantly followed his lead, sat up and swung her leg over to the other boat, then she slapped Reese in the face, by accident but yet on purpose. She did have a volcano of sexual frustration pent up now from all this Shaw jellyfish adventure.

“Whoops, sorry John,” Root had to stop herself from saying that she almost had Sameen, she had to remember she needed to be taking care of her injured primary asset and not letting her boundaries blur. 

“Shaw said to help her from you…remember,” Reese said in his super serious low whisper voice. “Grab Fusco’s hand…Root c’mon.” The helper monkey tried his most reasoning look on Root, who shrugged her shoulders and changed boats. What they didn’t expect was one super sexually charged female primary asset swinging an oar at them trying to bash their heads in for stealing her sexual relief. 

“John, does she really act like she wants me to go,” Root had to mock John. 

“Root…I’m just intervening like Shaw asked. It’s the jellyfish talking,” John had concern in his eyes for his teammate so Root followed his lead. 

Reese reached out and stopped Shaw’s hand, “Shaw, we are just trying to help you.”

The jellyfish infused primary asset took one look at Reese raised her oar to try and smack him. They started dueling with their oars against each other. 

“John, maybe at this point…you know…I should just help her before she ends up seriously hurting you or Fusco or probably both,” said Root while nodding to the detective. Root couldn’t believe she was suggesting this, well she could, since she wanted nothing more in the world to help Shaw with this particular problem. 

“Listen to the lady, John,” Shaw spoke in a low tone to Reese with a smirk on her face. 

“Shaw, I’m following your orders,” said John sternly to his shorter female teammate. 

Root let out a big sigh, “He’s right Sameen. You did say that, let’s head back to shore, maybe get you some more morphine.” 

Shaw begrudgingly gave up her oar to Reese and sat down scowling at him the whole time. Fusco seemed to let out a sigh of relief as him and Root settled in and started rowing towards the shore behind Reese and Shaw. 

As soon as John’s rowboat hit the shallower water, Shaw jumped out and started running down the beach. Reese was too slow on the draw to even come close to catching her. He slammed down his fist on the sand and watched as Shaw took off in the distance. 

“Shaw ran off down the beach, looks like she’s heading off the property,” Reese was breathing heavy into the communication link. “If the two of you go more north in the boat you might have a better chance at getting closer. I’ll head that way.” Reese took some deep breaths and scrunched up his face looking at the distance he was going to have to run after Shaw. 

Shaw kept running until she came upon a beach bar, right on the beach. The place was packed, wall-to-wall with a younger crowd, looked like spring breakers having a massive karaoke contest. She looked up and saw a banner that read, ‘Battle of the 80’s Jams Karaoke Contest’. She looked to the side and could see Reese running towards the bar from a distance. Shaw scanned the bar and found a young woman she wanted something from so she dragged her to the bathroom. 

Reese huffed and puffed up to the bar, he scanned the crowd for Shaw. Moments later Root showed up, “John, where is she? Is she here?” Root looked flustered. 

Up at the front of the bar there was a stage where a woman was murdering Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’, which it appeared the rowdy crowd was getting restless and anxious for the song to be over. 

Shaw stomped up to the stage with a wild look in her eye, she definitely got the attention of almost every man and quite a few women with sweat pouring and glistening off her rippling muscles, her tiny beach shorts, bikini top with a plaid button shirt open and tied in a knot in the middle, resting on her cleavage. The petite fired up firecracker bounded up to the stage and shoved herself towards the microphone before anyone else had a chance, she then looked out to the crowd. She talked to the DJ, picked her song then took out her hair scrunchie and thrashed her head up and down, raking her fingers through her silky smooth jet black hair, giving it a feral, smoldering look. This action garnered the attention of the whole bar, especially one analog interface who might have had drool dripping down her chin.

The DJ came over the speakers, “Okay campers!! We’ve got a new contestant who looks particularly hot,” the DJ put his hand over the microphone and turned to Shaw with some concern in his eyes, “You don’t have an actual fever do you?”

“Oh, I’ve got a fever all right,” Shaw gave the DJ a wicked smile. “Just play the damn song dude.” 

“She says this song goes out to one…pain in my ass,” the DJ tilted his head and shrugged. The music queued up and the song started. The 80s beat revved up, the lyrics to the song popped up on the screen in front of Shaw; she grabbed the microphone and took a rock star stance as if she was born for it. She scanned the entire bar as if looking for something to hunt and destroy, and then she found it. She locked eyes intensely and motioned with her fingers to eyes to let her prey know she was clocked. The tall brunette breathing heavily having just ran down the beach and busted into the bar with John, shook her head while trying to hold down a smile. The motion by the petite compact woman on stage did not go unnoticed by the crowd who then turned to Reese and Root, the rowdy crowd trying to decipher which of the pair was being serenaded. 

♪“Oh-oh, oh-oh…oh-oh…yeah yeah…yeah yeah…yeah yeah…”♪ Shaw began to sing, Reese and Root looked stunned, their mouths were almost literally open and dropped to the floor. 

Reese turned to Root said in amused tone, “How come Shaw never sings to us?”

“She doesn’t sing to you?” Root could not wipe the dumbfounded look on her face as she saw her favorite primary asset on stage singing like a bona fide rock star. This was the most surreal thing she had ever seen, the hottest surreal thing she had ever seen; although, whenever Shaw takes a small army down that is pretty hot too. 

♪“I feel a hunger, it’s a hunger…that keeps me awake at night…Are you the answer? I shouldn’t wonder…when I feel you weeeet my appetite…”♪

Root could feel her checks burning watching Shaw on stage, shooting her sex eyes while drawing out the word ‘wet’ just for her. 

“Uh, Tall Drink Of Water, I think Shaw is singing this right at you,” Fusco said to Root, who haven’t even noticed the detective had joined them at the bar. The tall brunette was capturing every second of this spectacular event to her memory hard drive. 

♪“With all the power you’re releasing…It isn’t safe to walk the city streets alone…”♪

“You can say that again with you two,” said Fusco while Root jabbed him in the ribs. 

♪“Anticipation is running through me…Let’s find the key and turn this engine on…”♪

“Root, you better stall that car for your own good and hers,” Reese turned to face Root, who couldn’t peel her eyes off her rock star firecracker. 

“You’re a real cock block John, you know that right?” remarked Root back to Reese without looking at him. 

Shaw thrashed on the stage while singing near perfect pitch to the old 80s cheesy song, slinging her messed up bedroom hair side-to-side and continuing to only focus on one person in the crowd. All of Shaw’s rock star antics just fueling and egging on the more and more rowdy crowd. 

♪“I can feel you breath…I can feel your heart beat faster…faaaaster…take me home tonight…I don’t want to let you go ‘til you see the light...”♪ Shaw grabbed the microphone hard and her eyes bore into Root’s so fiercely that the tall brunette actually felt like an electric shiver run up and down her entire body. 

Root so desperately wanted to believe that despite Shaw being blitzed out of her mind on jellyfish brain, she could have picked any of the hot bodied people in this crowded bar to sing to, or several of them. Yet she was singing this whacked goofy song directly to her. 

♪“Take me home tonight…listen honey…just like Root say…be my little baby…”♪ sang Shaw while she looked at Root like she could eat alive, all night. The two of them were only staring at each other like they were the only two people in the bar, possibly the world. 

“I thought you usually say, sweetie,” smirked Fusco to Root who was so flabbergasted by her name mention that a goofy, unabashedly adoring, high wattage radiating smile was plastered across her face. 

The crowd was starting to get into a frenzy with the pumped up song and pumped up antics on stage that Shaw was orchestrating, and they were getting a pretty good idea it was the tall brunette female she was singing to and not the tall dude who looked like he just got back from Malta. 

♪“I don’t get frightened by all this darkness…I don’t get nightmares, don’t mind to sleep alone…I need your company, a guardian angel…to keep me warm when the cold winds blow…”♪ Again, Shaw thrashed her silky, wild bedhead of hair from side to side and ran her hand over her six-pack abs which solicited many hoots and hollers from the audience from both genders. 

For the next chorus, Shaw put her hand inside her open shirt, over her breast, leaned over the microphone and continued to sing directly to one gorgeous hacker who had blitzed out heart eyes beaming at her. 

♪“I can feel you breath…I can feel your heart beat faster…TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT…I don’t want to let you go ‘til you see the LIGHT…take me home tonight…listen honey…just like Root say…”♪

Root then yelled as loud as she could, ♪”Be my little sweetie…be my little sweetie…”♪ 

Everyone in the bar turned to look at her, cheering and screaming enthusiastic support of the tall brunette’s addition. Then the music interlude wailed through the bar. 

“Nothing like a 80’s saxophone solo,” Fusco got into the song and bopped his head along, tapped his foot and even swayed his hips while Reese turned and shook his head at his partner. 

As soon as the saxophone solo ended, the whole was bar singing and yelling the lyrics. Loud cheering was being directed at the two women, the whole bar was clearly shipping these two love struck women. 

♪“Just like Root say…I say, just like Root saaaaaaay…”♪ 

Shaw pointed to Root with a twinkle in her eyes. Root beamed back to her. Someone in the crowd yelled to get a microphone to the tall hottie. 

♪”Be my little sweetie...baby my darlin’…oh oh oh oh oh…”♪ Root yelled out to Shaw who did an air kick, the crowd whopped, cheered and clapped thunderously even more.

“Again, just when I think life with you people couldn’t get any weird, one of you or both of you takes it to the next level. Who knew we had two secret wannabe rock stars on our team,” Fusco couldn’t help but let out a low chuckle. Reese looked confused but couldn’t hold down a smile while watching Shaw entice the excited spring breaker crowd even more with an old 80s cheesy song. 

♪”I feel the hunger…it’s a huuuuuunnnggggeeeeer…” the sexually charged jellyfish firecracker, shook her fingers through her hair, sweat continued to pour off her like a tiny waterfall which only made her look like an oiled up goddess. Shaw kicked one leg and knocked down the microphone stand, then tore her shirt open while blaring the next chorus directly at Root with the back up of the whole bar singing too,♪ “TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT…I DON’T WANT TO LET YOU GO ‘TIL YOU SEE THE LIGHT…”♪

The crowd continued to yell and repeat the chorus several times while wildly cheering as Shaw dropped the microphone, vaulted off the stage and dashed to Root. The crowd then chanted, ‘KISS KISS KISS’ to the two women as they circled each other. Shaw ducked before Reese could grab her; she then kicked him in the knee. The jellyfish infused primary asset clawed at Root’s shirt, she pulled her sexual asset out of the bar, before the guys could get a hold of either of them. The crowd was in favor of the two women, so they kept making body blocks to Reese and Fusco. Almost everybody in the bar wanted to help the singer with her hunger and the tall brunette who was beaming out sunshine aimed at the starving, ravishing wild dark haired petite woman. 

Root let Shaw pull her along off the beach into the trees. Suddenly, Shaw stopped and turned to Root only focusing on the hacker’s lips. 

“Let’s go to the hatch,” Shaw kissed Root briefly, sucking on the hacker’s upper lip before a slight pull and letting go. This action left the tall brunette completely weak in the legs. 

“There really is a hatch?” asked Root as Shaw interlaced their fingers together and they started off walking deeper into the trees. 

“I’ll show you.”

They ran deep into the trees until not much sunlight was getting through, and the foliage was getting thicker. Shaw stopped abruptly in her tracks and got down on almost all fours running her hands over the ground. Then she found it, the opening as Root looked on in amazement. 

“There really is a hatch,” Root looked pretty confused and surprised, “what is it?”

Just then Reese appeared from behind one of the trees, as he stepped towards Shaw she twisted the handle of the hatch, popped it open and pushed Reese down the deep hole. 

“Sameen!” Root yelled after watching her male teammate fall down a mysterious hole, “Reese!” She grabbed Shaw’s arm, “What’s down there? Is he okay?”

“He’ll be fine and he’s taken care of a few hours. Let’s go back to our room,” the still sexually charged firecracker planted a searing yet beyond pleasurable kiss on Root’s lips, leaving them tingling like chili pepper powder had been smeared on them. “It’s one of Finch’s secret lairs that he doesn’t think any of us know about, there are provisions down there to last at least 20 people for 50 years or more.” 

Root looked on in bewildering amazement, was what Shaw just said actually true? Or was it jellyfish brain talking? 

*****

On the way back to the resort, trekking through the small forest amongst the trees the two female teammates both stopped very suddenly when they heard muffled voices off in the distance. They both quickly lowered to the grass and scanned the area. 

“It’s the scientists,” whispered Shaw to Root’s non-implant ear. 

Root hoped maybe the jellyfish brain was wearing off since Shaw seemed to be coherent at the moment, however it had only been a few hours. “Let’s find a place to hide, see if we can hear what they are saying,” Root looked around and found a tree log hollowed on the ground but filled with debris, she started scooping out to make a hiding place for the two of them.  


Shaw moved over and started helping, “Four hands are better than one,” said Shaw in a pretty obscene bedroom voice while pressing her entire body against Root’s backside and nuzzling her nose along the hacker’s neck.

Okay, so the jellyfish effects had not worn off at all by any means Root thought. The tall brunette crawled into the hollowed out tree first, pushing up to the front which gave a great vantage point on watching the scientists in what seemed like some of outdoor retreat meeting. She continued to be surprised by one petite compact primary asset as she crawled up into the hollow tree, settled on top of the hacker with all her weight instead of sliding in next to her. Root didn’t want to admit how good it felt having Shaw’s body on top of her body, she needed to focus on keeping them safe and finding out why these scientists were doing out here. 

They couldn’t move or they would be seen some of the scientists. Root couldn’t believe it, but Shaw really was onto something. She didn’t know if Shaw had figured something out about the scientists before she got stung by the jellyfish, or if the sting was bringing this information to the forefront; either way there was something definitely off about these scientists. Root didn’t like they were trapped for the moment; she couldn’t tell how long the scientists were going to be. And she didn’t want to risk them finding her and Shaw because she didn’t know how many people were involved and their skimpy beach attire left them gunless. Plus, it was a great spot to listen to what was going on old school style, not phone jacking. They got lucky finding this hollowed out tree log that was just long enough to conceal them. The hacker didn’t think it was a great idea for Shaw to climb on top of her to squeeze in and then plant herself so firmly, she thought they could have fit side by side better and less inclined to more groping. 

They both laid in the hollowed out tree log watching, breathing quietly and listening. 

“Shaw? Let’s try and get as much as information as we can. Do not run out, and be quiet, okay?” Root whispered and hoped Shaw could hear her. 

Root wasn’t entirely sure Shaw was listening to her, she could hear and feel the petite firecracker’s breathing picking up. And then she felt Shaw rhythmically rubbing up against her. Root shook her head; Shaw couldn’t possibly be doing what she thought she was doing?

“Sameen?! You’re not actually dry humping me are you?” whispered Root with a stunned look on her face. 

“I’ve wanted to hump you since the day we first met. Well…shoot you or you hump you…I think they’re both considered foreplay where you’re concerned,” said Shaw in between labored breaths. 

Root was having trouble not turning over and changing this dry humping into wet humping. 

Shaw put both her hands on each side of Root’s head and had her full weight on the hacker. 

“Sameen, this time. I might actually kill you; which is pretty unfair since you’ll kill me for this even though I’m not doing anything, literally nothing,” said an exasperated Root. 

“If you’re going to talk…tell me where you wish your hands were…and your mouth…on me,” Shaw leaned down, nuzzled between Root’s hair and sucked the back of her neck. 

“Sameen, seriously??!” Root whispered out as quietly and demanding as possible. 

Root peered out through a big hole in the tree, they were still surrounded and the scientists were still searching and milling around. Shaw was breathing hard on the back of her neck in between sucking, her bare legs rubbing up against her bare legs. The worse part of course was Shaw seductively pushing herself for release against her ass. Her ass was having all the fun. Although, Root admitted, her whole body was pulsating and throbbing in the most delicious, yet tortuous ways. If she were a guy, she was pretty sure she would have already sprayed down the tree trump in a rather crude way. Her clothes were all drenched again from Shaw’s excessive jellyfish sweating and she knew from the past few hours of Shaw’s intense attentions her bottoms would definitely have to be thrown away. 

Shaw’s movements started getting more frantic and much to Root’s surprise her feisty crush was getting quite vocal, which was going to put them into actual danger. 

“Sameen, I can’t believe I’m saying this…keep your moaning down.”

“Root, oh gawd…Root….yes…keep talking…you can even talk nerd,” said Shaw in between labored breathes. 

“Sameen…this is worst than getting shot in the shoulder you know,” said Root while she laid her head down on the tree. 

Just then Shaw let out a moan that was getting way to loud. Root knew she had to do something. So pushed off the bottom of the hollowed out tree as hard as she could, she slapped her hands onto Shaw’s ass and held tight, she used her feet and every ounce of strength she could to flip her position, Shaw was still on top of her but now she was on her back. 

“Ohhhh, yeah…this is sooooo much better,” Shaw barely missed a beat as she positioned herself on Root’s thigh and began frantically moving toward her goal again. And the horny firecracker started up her rather loud moaning again, so Root had no choice put to cover her mouth with her mouth in hopes of diminishing the sounds so they wouldn’t be detected. Root almost felt guilty for sliding her tongue in Shaw’s mouth, however she didn’t really have a choice as her crush was already deeply tongue stroking her mouth. The muffled moans started getting louder as Shaw got closer and closer, so Root kissed her deeper. Root then had to hold down her own outburst as pleasurable pain ransacked her body. They both were still, both trying to calm their breathing; there was so much heat and sweat between them. 

“Let the record show, I didn’t touch you,” Root already making her defense case. 

“You just had your tongue in my mouth,” Shaw trailed kisses up and down Root’s neck, getting close to her mouth again. 

“That doesn’t count, that was an audio precaution for our safety,” Root looked out the hole and noticed some time in between Shaw’s antics the scientist dispersed and the surrounding area was clear. So the hacker motioned for the two of them to exit the hollowed out tree log. 

Root had trouble standing on her wobbly legs. 

“I’m pretty sure I have the equivalent of blue balls,” said Root while looking down at the wet patches along her shorts and leg. 

“Blue bean. I can take care of that,” Shaw dropped down on her knees and positioned herself in front of Root with her hands on the tall brunette’s waist. 

“Shaw, no. We got to get going back. We need to talk to Harry and tell him what we saw,” Root said, although seeing one petite primary asset kneeled before her was quite the sight to see.

“You’re right, let’s back to the room. Where we can destroy each other for a few days,” said Shaw standing up and then giving a firm squeeze to Root’s ass. 

Root had to admit, she might miss this jellyfish infused Shaw, she was one hell of a roller coaster ride; of course so is the original Shaw.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Props to the borrowed Eddie Money song 'Take Me Home Tonight' that I heard on the radio the other day, I blame grief for that silly idea. I do recommend listening to it while reading, if you can stand the cheese.


	9. Jellyfish Hangover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the wonderful comments and reading! I'm just rambling now, I think because I miss Root so much. And I really miss seeing them together. What they had five short scenes together after the long separation…never enough. I guess we are to take comfort in Sense & Sensibility -  
> Marianne Dashwood: “It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy;—it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.” by Jane Austen  
> (Although, I still think Root having her own copy means something!!)

When Root and Shaw finally made it back to the resort property, the still sexually charged firecracker had a severe look on determination on her face to get Root somewhere private. The tall hacker could tell the jellyfish sting was definitely taking its physical toll now on the petite primary asset; she had become dehydrated from all the sweating and becoming even more belligerent. Root was getting worried, she wanted to get Shaw back to the room to rest and not for the sex showdown that jellyfish brain firecracker was pushing towards. Shaw pulled the tall hacker fiercely through the lobby and she let profanities fly at warp speed when Joan spotted them, the doctor’s assistant started running to stop them.

“Sam! Sam!” Joan rushed over to two women racing through the lobby. Shaw kept barreling through the lobby with no intention of stopping for the doctor’s assistant, “Sam? Could you stop for a minute? Sammy, please a word. The four of you have missed two activities today,” called out Joan for the two women to stop. 

Joan finally sprinted in front of the pair and stopped in front of them, which caused Root to slam into Shaw, where the shorter woman pulled her to her waist roughly and held on tight. Joan took in the appearance of the two women, both had extremely disheveled clothing and hair, both were completely soaked in sweat, Root had hickeys and bite marks up down her neck and chest, Shaw still had a slight one on her neck from the day before and her shirt was wide open, and they were breathing heavily. They both looked like teenagers caught in the back of a fogged up car. Root discreetly tried to untangle herself from Shaw since they were still undercover, but the jellyfish sexed up asset wasn’t having it, she held on firm with both hands roaming all over on the taller woman. 

Joan looked at them suspiciously and asked, “Where are your husbands?” with a false look of concern on her face as she reached out and touched Root’s shoulder. Shaw immediately and brusquely shoved Joan’s hand off Root. It just so happened to be over the scar that Shaw had given Root, which made the hacker smile unknowingly. 

“Golfing,” Root said quickly, once again very discreetly pushing her hand down in between Shaw’s to pry their bodies a part, even just an centimeter of distance. And still Shaw wasn’t having it, running her hand down Root’s backside to land on her ass and grip it possessively, which Root hoped was out of sight of the obnoxious woman Joan, yet there was also the part of her brain that didn’t really care if the doctor’s assistant saw because of what the hand was doing. 

“I thought Sammy was on bed rest because of the severe jellyfish sting?” asked Joan very suspiciously, her eyes roaming over Root’s body. One petite fired up firecracker shot her death stares and managed to slip her hand down the backside and inside of the hacker’s shorts, which elicited a quiet moan from the tall hacker that she tried to pass off as a cough. 

“She is, however it’s also made her really loopy. She keeps hallucinating and mixing people up, right now she actually think’s I’m Lionel…” to Root’s shock, honest amusement and complete unbridled arousal, Shaw leaned over and nuzzled her neck, “…so I’m…uh…” it was extraordinary difficult for the tall hacker to form any thoughts or sentences, “…I’m trying to...get her back to her room...so she can get some more morphine and rest.” The tall hacker really hoped this line worked or maybe they would just be seen as cheating spouses, hopefully their covers weren’t blown. If their covers were blown, she did smile to herself thinking how Shaw was going to digest that their mission was revealed because she couldn’t keep her hands and mouth off one analog interface. Root was pretty sure Shaw would never believe her without documented video footage as proof. 

Joan looked very skeptical at this explanation by Root, the doctor’s assistant then leaned and whispered into the tall brunette’s ear and ironically it was Root’s implant so she didn’t hear much of anything, “You could have done so much better, like me.”

However, one petite firecracker heard it and without missing a beat, took her hands off Root and decked Joan right in the face. Joan wobbled over and fell down unceremoniously on her bottom with a loud thud and shocked gasp. 

“If you didn’t, I was going to,” Root looked down at Joan and stepped over her body, “C’mon sexed up sweetie, let’s get you cooled off.” The tall hacker gave a much-appreciated smile to her favorite primary asset and pulled the shorter woman near her. 

“If she touches you again, I’m shooting her,” Shaw leaned up and grabbed Root’s upper lip in her mouth and sucked on it. 

Root’s hands unconsciously went up and cupped Shaw’s face. Then she had to scold herself and bring them down. “Shaw, c’mon. Let’s go to the room,” the tall hacker tugged the jellyfish brained woman along the hallway. 

As soon as they turned the corner and got in front of the room, Shaw put arms around Root’s waist while the hacker opened the door. Since Shaw was leaning most of her weight on Root when the door flew open they stumbled in, then the sex-craved delirious primary asset, swung the tall brunette around and started hungrily kissing her while slamming her against the nearest wall. Root tried her best to get away, once again it was the most pleasurable torture on earth but Shaw did need some rest and probably a massive cold shower pronto. 

“Oh, Ms. Groves, Ms. Shaw there you two are…Oh my,” Harold said rather shockingly watching his two female co-workers aggressively make out against the wall. 

“Jesus Christ!” Shaw slammed her fist into the wall as she pulled back from Root’s lips very angrily and begrudgingly. 

“Well, close he did create a god of sorts,” smirked Root while she stroked Shaw’s face in a calming way. 

“Are you both all right? I just heard from Mr. Fusco and he was worried, he can’t find Mr. Reese,” said Harold looking rather alarmed. 

“And he’s not going to find him,” said Shaw tossing off her open button down shirt to the floor, wearing just her bikini top and glaring at Harold. 

Harold looked very uncomfortable, even though technically it was a bathing suit top; he averted his eyes from primary asset Shaw. “Ms. Groves, I guess I don’t need to ask if Ms. Shaw is still under the jellyfish influence,” Shaw moved to the side of Root and wrapped her arms around her waist, one hand slipping under the hacker’s shirt while the other held on tight. Harold’s eyebrows shot up, “I can only imagine Ms. Shaw is going to be quite upset when she returns to her sound mind.” Harold made a slightly aghast and tiny disgusted face while watching the shorter woman grope the taller woman, “…Perhaps, we shouldn’t replay all the details for her.” 

Root looked disappointed, “Harry, we’ve got years of harassment and blackmail material on Shaw now, don’t be a party pooper,” Harold looked back at her with a disapproving look. The tall hacker sighed loudly, “Shaw pushed John down a hatch, and she said it was yours?” Root looked very intrigued at Harold while still managing Shaw’s roaming hands. 

“Oh my,” Harold said with wild eyes. 

“Is that true? Harry?” asked Root, momentarily catching one of Shaw’s hands and clasping it with both of her hands. 

“Yes, yes it is. If that’s case, uh something has been…never mind. I was able to figure something out I believe that might be of interest…” Harold was about to continue. 

“You people are not getting what’s right in front of you faces. The world is about to end as you know it,” Shaw mumbled half of this as her face was buried in Root’s back and her hands continued to wander lasciviously over the hacker’s stomach, inching higher, “Root and I need to be alone now Finch.” 

“Shaw, wait. What exactly are you saying?” asked Root, although really all she wanted was a cold shower herself. She was getting a little uncomfortable with Shaw all over her in front of Harry; she couldn’t control her body’s reactions to the biggest turn on of her life. 

“Root, I am in pain now…” Shaw then placed her hand on Root’s ass and pulled her forcibly into her body hard, keeping her hand on the hacker’s ass and roughly massaging it, “…we’re going to destroy each other before the world is destroyed.” 

Harold looked even more aghast and embarrassed this time; he looked like he wanted to flee the room immediately. 

“Uh…what are you thinking Harry?” Root asked Harold, although Shaw bit down hard on her shoulder to get her attention. “Okay, fine…sexual destroying will commence soon.” Root didn’t want this to be a lie but she hoped this might get the petite fired up firecracker to keep talking, “Shaw, what are the scientists doing?”

“Did no one see the movie ‘Gravity’?” Harold and Root looked over to their petite co-worker somewhat confused. “Yeah, Sandra Bullock crashed back down to earth looking lean and toned in underwear, but they don’t show you the aftermath. The technology mass chaos it caused.” Shaw went back to sucking on Root’s neck. 

Harold and Root looked at each other, both heads racing with thoughts. “Thinking along those same lines, that was my thought sans the Sandra Bullock film reference. Ms. Shaw might be onto something in her impending doom state,” Finch thought for a moment to collect his thoughts and avert his eyes from seeing Shaw grope Root with so much PDA there needed to be a parental warning, he then proceeded, “Back in 1850s there was a cable that ran from the US to Europe for the telegraph. Of course today, those cables have been replaced with fiber optic cables. Even with the advancement of satellite technology a huge majority of international data is still made by these undersea cables, in fact newer ones are being constructed all the time. The object you found scuba diving, the tiki necklace object, might be a location device for the cables, a beacon of sorts. What if Samaritan cut those cables? Our world would change drastically instantly. And if satellites were comprised…”

“Samaritan could easily take control…” Root wondered out loud. 

“Samaritan could launch the world into a minor technology dark ages. It would cripple large amounts of data, people and regions. If they could somehow have only their cable or satellite remain operable the whole world would fall to their feet. If they found all the fiber optic cables and destroyed them or took them over, the world would be isolated from each other.” Harold finished his theorizing and looked to the two women; one was completely oblivious in only a bikini now (shorts discarded off to the side) and still getting even more amorous some how. While the other woman, looked torn between processing thoughts and ripping off her clothes. 

“So Ms. Shaw is right, those scientists aren’t here to save the world, they are here to possibly destroy it, to some degree,” said Harold dimly. 

“Score one for the jellyfish brain,” Root smiled while leaning her head back into Shaw, who used this access greatly. 

“Go. Now Mr. Glasses.” Shaw pushed Finch towards the exit. 

“Ms. Shaw has spent too much time with Mr. Fusco,” Harold adjusted his glasses and moved towards the door. 

“Sorry, Harry. Duty calls,” Root gave Harold her trademark non-wink. 

“Ms. Groves, need I remind you that Ms. Shaw is not in her sound of mind,” Harold moved closer to the door. 

“Yes, Harry. Sadly, I’m strongly aware,” Root tilted her head to Harold, “Trust me.” 

As soon as the door closed, Shaw stripped off the bikini, Root stood frozen seeing the completely nude form of her favorite primary asset. A completely naked Shaw then sauntered over and started undressing Root. The tall hacker was in a tizzy, she placed her hand on Shaw’s forehead and the sexed up firecracker was burning hot. And she tried extremely hard not to ogle the naked Shaw in front of her that actually desperately wanted to have sex with her, sadly that was not her Shaw. 

“Shaw, we really need to get you into a cold shower,” Root pleaded, somewhere in there hopefully the real Shaw was coming up for air. 

“Only if you’re in there with me…completely…au natural,” Shaw gently tugged the strings and pulled Root’s top off and started placing kisses along her chest, getting lower and lower to her breasts.

It took all of Root’s will power to bring her hands up and push against Shaw and her aggressive chest kisses with all her strength. She then bent down quickly, and with all her might swooped the petite kissy firecracker up and put her over her shoulder, she wobbled for a moment then regained her footing. Good thing shooting two guns helps with core strength. Thankfully, she didn’t get any fighting back from Shaw, instead the horned up asset used this advantage to tease and slip her hand under Root’s shorts. When Root got them to the bathroom she lowered Shaw down her body slowly, every inch of naked skin sliding over each other caused shudders for both of them she could feel. Shaw started kissing any inch of Root again while the tall hacker guided her in the shower. Before Root could turn away the shorter woman hooked her fingers in her shorts and pulled the tall brunette into yet another weak in the knees kiss. This kiss was a little different than the other kisses, it was slower, much more tender, actually frolicsome; a complete surprise from the heated, demanding kisses from earlier. Beside her best effort to remain in caregiver mode, Root couldn’t help but get wonderfully lost in the languid, exploratory kiss Shaw was orchestrating. Then suddenly Shaw pulled back and had a very strange look on her face. 

“Sameen, are you okay?”

Before Shaw could answer Root, she leaned over and threw up in the shower. The tall brunette reached out and pulled back the shorter woman’s long hair and put her hand on her bare back. 

Root then stepped into the shower still partially clothed, grabbed onto Shaw by the waist and tried her best to clean up the temporary sick badass primary asset. It was kind of gross Root thought, however she kind of never felt closer to Shaw and she was pretty sure this would never be spoken of again, which brought a sad smile to her face. Her lethal primary asset would not want to know what was going in this shower right now. 

*****

The smell was what woke up Shaw first, not the fact that almost all her limbs felt like they were trapped and shackled; it was the stifling, offensive odors assaulting her senses. Her head was partially laying on the mattress and on something else. Her head was pounding, everything felt foggy. She lifted her head up slowly and realized it was Root’s arm she was sleeping on; well she assumed it was the tall hacker’s appendage. It had to be Root’s arm as the familiar chestnut brown wavy hair was also partially in her face and the familiar pang in her stomach whenever the other woman was near her. Her stomach and hormones sometimes were the greatest traitors to her brain and body. Why in the hell was she handcuffed to the bed? And shackled to Root? What she could tell by looking down was that Root’s other arm was wrapped around her waist tightly. She had no idea why she was shackled to Root and it was starting to piss her off. She tried to remember, but everything was coming up completely blank. She remembered getting stung by the jellyfish and Root urinating on her, had she really requested that action? A feeling of unbridled anger started washing over her, because anger was her constant. She had no idea on why she would have agreed to be tied to Root and she desperately wanted to know. She couldn’t fathom on why she would ever agree to be locked into this far too intimate forced spoon situation with someone, however there had a to be a reason. Unless of course Root drugged her yet again, yet even though her gut was hurting from lack of food it was also telling her that wasn’t what happened. 

“Root?” Shaw’s voice sounded weak, it was also the driest, felt like there was a desert sand storm in her mouth. 

“Sameen?” Root’s voice sounded pretty weak too, the taller woman sounded either hung-over or sleep deprived, probably both. “How are you feeling?” The big spoon moved her head, brushed her nose against the little spoon’s neck. Shaw did not want to admit even in her own hung-over state she felt a small shiver from this action. 

“Pissed off…thirsty…sticky. Very sticky.” Shaw tried to lift her hands but there was very little room to move being handcuffed to the bedpost and the other one attached to a long chain attached to her leg, which was holding onto Root’s bare thigh much to her grimace. And the fact that it was latched onto the hacker’s thigh in between both of her legs was also irritating, yet also begrudgingly comforting or arousing, could go both ways. Shaw’s head and stomach were aching so much she couldn’t tell up from down. 

Everything was moist and grungy, Shaw had sweated nonstop for hours as the doctor predicted, and vomited too. Root had helped her change clothes twice and the sheets then gave up. Now the two of them were practically melded together with soaked, awfully fragrant clothes that might possibly needed to be burned. 

“You can let go now,” Shaw turned her head slightly to try and look at Root, “You smell really terrible.”

“Well, you did throw up on me,” Root said with a sweet, genuine smile that could be heard through her voice. The big spoon began to peel herself off the little spoon’s back, even she made a slightly disgusted look on her face at their state and smell. “I think this room might need to be fumigated.” Root leaned up and unshackled both of Shaw’s hands. Shaw immediately withdrew her arm from in between Root’s legs, without making eye contact. She then moved to get some distance between them on the bed. However, she moved a tad too quickly and her head screamed out in pain. Shaw cupped her head in her hands. 

“What the hell happened?” asked Shaw, she knew from her gut she was not going to like to hear what transpired over the last twelve hours. She had a feeling it was going to be even more messy, smelly and ugly as the two of them right now. 

“I’m not even the one that got stung and I feel like a truck hit me. You are one hard gal to keep up with…hard really being a key word,” Root said while stretching out her limbs, she was sore from being tied up as well. Shaw didn’t want to admit that the tall hacker, while despite smelling disgusting, actually looked pretty attractive sweat soaked, sleep deprived and hair matted in several directions. 

The way Root said the word ‘hard’ made Shaw think there was a lot to the last twelve hours that she didn’t want to know anything about. Shaw only made fleeting eye contact with Root, it was pretty embarrassing to think she threw up on Root, she shuddered to think of any other disgusting things she might have done in her jellyfish doomed heat state. And the hacker was still here, holding onto to her to make sure she didn’t harm herself. It was somewhat suffocating, yet also something else she didn’t want to label, still really freaky suffocating and she thought it was kind of nice too; so many conflicting ideas her head felt like a tennis match. Both her head and stomach felt like they were spinning or turning over and over, like thinking of Root being wonderful for being here and then pissed she was still here. For the one person she never wanted to be seen weak in front of, she did a bang up job of destroying that image completely in the last twelve hours she feared. 

“You overcome your shyness about sharing the bathroom…” Root smirked and was going to continue but Shaw gave her such a severe look she changed directions. “Do you remember anything from the past 12 hours?”

Shaw shook her head slowly, because any fast movement was too painful. Damnit, Shaw thought, her mind was completely blank. She had absolutely no idea what transpired since she was on the beach being carried off by Reese and about half of what was said in the doctor’s office. 

Shaw looked down and noticed she was wearing Root’s hideous Grumpy Cat pajama bottoms. “Root, why in the hell am I wearing your hideous pajama bottoms?” Especially since the tall hacker wasn’t wearing any pajama pants, and Shaw found it was hard not to stare at those impossibly long swoon worthy legs.

“You soaked through three pairs, after this one, you were going to have to go nude…”

“Don’t finish, my head is about to detonate,” Shaw somewhat begged to Root. 

“My head doesn’t feel great either, I think we’re both dehydrated,” Root couldn’t help it, she had to add, “we both released a lot of fluids in the last twelve hours.” 

Shaw felt anger and arousal flare up with the last comment, she couldn’t look at Root, “Was there a good reason you handcuffed me to the bed?”

“You asked me to,” Root could tell Shaw was having a time processing all this info, “…I think because you didn’t want to hurt anybody…like Joan.” Root smiled big at Shaw. “The doctor said he was very impressed with your stamina during the whole sting, never seen anything like it.” 

“How comforting,” Shaw deadpanned. 

“And you didn’t have a heart attack during the episode, so that was a plus,” Root stood up off the bed. 

Shaw slowly glanced around the room. “Why is all my stuff in your room?” 

“That wasn’t actually me, Fusco did that. He said since you hadn’t spent the past two nights with him, that’s a trial separation. Plus, I had to keep changing your clothes in hopes of your fever breaking.”

Shaw’s eyes started to fully wake up and focus, she noticed the tall hacker’s neck was littered with hickeys and bite-marks; also, lower along her chest too, she inwardly groaned and also felt a heat burn in her stomach. She motioned to Root’s neck with her hand uneasy and almost shy like. 

“You probably don’t want to know about that yet,” Root said with a trademark smirk laced with a sympathetic head tilt. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever needed a shower as much as I do right now,” Shaw got up slowly from the bed. 

“You and me both,” Root followed Shaw into the bathroom.

Shaw turned around and scowled, “What the hell are you doing?”

“Guess I got used to going to the bathroom with you,” smiled Root. 

Shaw rolled her eyes then pushed Root out of the bathroom and slammed the door, which made both women wince and grab their heads in pain on opposite sides of the door. 

Again, Shaw decided right then she did not want to know all the details over the past twelve hours. She started peeling the disgusting clothes off her and was surprised the one piece of clothing that was the most drenched of course was her underwear, damn Root she thought. In fact, despite the pounding headache, the extreme hunger pains, and sore muscles; her whole body had an inflamed reverberate thing going on, like a wave of heat that she didn’t want to think about. A sexual hum that was hard to ignore, so maybe getting some details on what happened in the last twelve hours wasn't such a bad idea. Even though she didn’t want to know. Shaw knew one thing for sure; she needed a steak pronto. 

When she came out of the bathroom, the bedroom door was open and Root was hanging out at the bar with Fusco, thankfully this time the long legged hacker had put shorts on. 

“Hey! It’s Eddie Money’s best cover band,” Fusco pointed to Shaw with thumbs up as she exited the bedroom, “Shaw, I had no idea you had such a great voice, you too Coco Puffs,” he grinned pretty big, holding down a hard laugh. 

Shaw looked horrified; her eyes darted back and forth between the detective and the tall hacker. 

“She doesn’t remember? Is jellyfish brain sting like blacking out or something?” Fusco looked actually disappointed he didn’t get to relive the past twelve hours of Jellyfish Brain Shaw with her. 

“I’m not sure Lionel. She doesn’t remember so let’s ease her into the last twelve hours,” Root said while lightly squeezing Shaw’s arm and moving around to the kitchen. 

“Or not at all,” Shaw huffed. The petite sociopath kind of wanted to yank her arm away from Root, however she also kind of wanted more because of the leftover sexual hum that was coursing through her body, she wanted to keep down the casual touching from Root. Okay, she admitted the sexual hum had been there way before the jellyfish sting, damnit. 

“Well, let’s just say you didn’t take it easy on us. I’ve got bruises and poor Reese might not be able to have kids,” Fusco chuckled a little at that thought. 

“Has he come back yet?” asked a concerned Root. 

“Haven’t seen the dark knight,” Fusco sipped his coffee. “He’s not in the other room?”

“We might need to go rescue him from the hatch if Harold hasn’t already,” said Root while rummaging around looking for something to eat and drink. 

“What hatch?” asked a confused Fusco. 

“There’s a hatch,” Shaw blurted out. 

“You remember the hatch?” asked a now confused Root to Shaw.

“Again, do none of you people do research or recon for your missions?” Shaw pinched the bridge of her nose in her trademark frustration pose. “My head is killing me, this is worse than a hang-over.” 

“What’s that horrible smell?” asked a grossed out Fusco. 

“It’s her,” said Shaw gruffly to Root. 

“Smelly Puffs, please spare us,” Fusco scrunched up his nose towards Root who shrugged then shuffled off to the bathroom. 

As soon as Shaw heard the water running in the shower, she looked over at Fusco. “Okay, Lionel. What was the most embarrassing thing I did over the last twelve hours that you saw?” asked a cautious Shaw. 

“You got pen and paper, or that notepad open on your phone?” a bemused Fusco retorted back to her. 

Shaw gave her best ‘I'm going to murder you a thousand times’ stare at Fusco. 

“Maybe Smelly Puffs is right, maybe some things are better left unknown,” Fusco said somewhat kindly to Shaw. 

“Did I steal Harold’s glasses or something? Knock down a little old lady?”

“Hey, it wasn’t that bad. The only one you really harassed was your girlfriend so…”

“She’s NOT my girlfriend,” Shaw gritted through her teeth so hard it sounded like they would turn to dust. 

“Really? Because you were all over her for twelve hours. I haven’t seen that much tongue action and groping outside of a skinamax movie,” again Fusco was way too amused for Shaw’s sake.

“Need I remind you, it’s one of the most painful stings on the planet and it should have been YOU,” Shaw wanted nothing more for her fake husband to actually get the jellyfish sting now. 

“Well, I’m sure Coca Puffs was much happier having you try get into her pants than me,” joked Fusco to a very non-amused angry petite primary asset. 

“Lionel…”

“I’m joking, you think I would turn to her…no way. She’s nuts.”

Shaw grabbed the back of Fusco’s head with her hand just about to slam his head onto the counter. 

“Shaw! What’s going on?” yelled Root coming out from the bedroom wrapped in a towel with wet hair. 

The enraged petite asset looked up at the tall hacker and felt the anger mostly melt away, especially seeing Root in a towel. Okay, brain she thought, the jellyfish reverb after effects need to stop pronto. 

“I was enlightening her on the last twelve hours,” said Fusco shaking his head and out of Shaw’s hard grasp. 

“Lionel, I told you that wasn’t a good idea. Shaw…didn’t mean to interrupt, proceed,” said Root nonchalantly as she walked back into the bedroom to get dressed. 

*****

After grabbing a quick breakfast on the go, because despite the angry petite primary asset saying she was fine, she definitely looked like she was nursing a massive hangover. Ditto, on the tall hacker Fusco thought, so he forced his teammates to stop and fuel up. The three teammates headed out off the property to find the hatch and Reese. 

As they walked to the hatch through the forest, with Fusco far behind them out of earshot, Shaw matched her pace with Root and lowered her voice, “Okay, just tell me the most embarrassing thing I did in the last twelve hours, just get it over with,” accompanied with an exasperated, kind of pleading look in her eyes. 

“Shaw, what does it matter?”

“It matters to me. Root, c’mon…what happened?”

“I don’t think any of it was that embarrassing…it was actually kind of fun…”

“Root...” this was a higher-level warning; there were a few different levels on how Shaw said the tall hacker’s name. This tone was getting into the red area. 

“I guess it all depends on where you stand on 80s karaoke vs. dry humping,” Root motioned her hands like weighing two different imaginary objects. 

Shaw’s groan was so loud. “Dry humping?” she hoped she didn’t say it loud enough for Fusco to hear. 

“To complete fruition,” Root lowered her voice to a husky timber and stared intensely at Shaw, “If you know what I mean.”

Shaw rolled her eyes, she thought sometimes the hacker could be such a dork, an awkward horny teenage dorky guy, like the Farmer Ted geek from that one 80s movie.

Shaw whispered back, “Please, tell me it was at least in private,” she scolded herself mentally, it sounded like her hormones just took over and completely ran wildly rampant. 

“It was, well we were hiding from the scientists, so I couldn’t get away from…you,” once again Root leaned and to whispered this, of course to make it look like she was being discreet from Fusco, but Shaw really knew it was to invade her space and be close to her. 

“Great, so I humped you a like a dog in heat,” Shaw shook her head, then she realized that just made her head throb harder and her lower regions. 

“You were in heat, sweetie,” said Root sympathetically while putting her arm around Shaw’s shoulder.

Shaw noticed that the last twelve hours must have had an effect on Root too as the hacker seemed to be touching her more. 

“The pleasure was all yours, okay a little mine too…” Root then got serious for a moment, “I was worried about you, however, you probably kicked that jellyfish’s ass harder than anyone has ever had it before. In true Shaw fashion, you were a sight to behold.” Root gave Shaw that look that always made the petite asset uncomfortable, it was an all-encompassing look that shut out the world, silenced everything. 

Shaw had to tear her eyes away finally, “Not sure about that, I’m pretty sore today,” she stretched her arms out and rotated her head. 

Root’s eyes roamed up and down over Shaw’s body as they walked. “And you can take me home any night.”

Shaw groaned. She had no idea why such a dork as this woman turned her whole body into one giant goose bump. And maybe when she felt stronger she would ask about the other embarrassing thing, her throbbing head didn’t want to know right now. 

As the approached the hatch, it was clear that while Shaw knew about the hatch she didn’t know exactly where it was or how to get into, that part of the last twelve hours was gone too. After the three of them searched for a little while they finally stumbled upon the hatch opening buried under some debris. It took almost all three of them to push the top open, they all three then peered down the long drop downwards. 

There was a ladder leading down the long deep tunnel drop, Shaw volunteered to go first. 

“Hey, be careful,” said Root to Shaw with a concerned tone. 

“Well, if we survived the last twelve hours, I’m sure this will be easy right?” said Shaw as she looked up to Root, who was making those eyes at her that she found extremely uncomfortable at the same time as wanting to kiss her. The petite primary asset started making her way down the ladder. 

When she hit the bottom, it was mostly dark except for slivers of light bouncing off the concrete walls. Her senses were alerting her that there was no dangerous threat, mostly because she thought she could smell…pancakes? A small light came on further down the tunnel with a door being opened, illuminating that the tunnel was actually quite nice, lined with artwork.

Then suddenly, Shaw heard the patter of paws on concrete and before she knew it she felt something jump on her and she was getting licked in the face. She looked down and saw it was Bear, happily greeting her. 

“Bear? What are you doing here?” Shaw asked very confused with a huge smile spread across her face. 

“Bear?!” shouted an excited Root from the top of the ladder. Then loud stomps were heard being plopped down on each step as the hacker excitedly hurried down the ladder. 

Root landed and Bear pounced on her with the same enthusiasm for Shaw. Then a silhouette started foaming from the end of the tunnel. Both women stood up, hands on Bear to stare intensely at the figure at the end of the tunnel from an opened door. 

“Shaw, it’s good to see you again. This must be Root,” smirked the woman with long wavy, dark blonde highlighted bed hair, scantily clad dressed only in a man’s dress shirt. 

“Zoe?” asked Shaw, with Root beside her with surprised eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stole a line from Parks & Recreation that I got reminded of from the hilarious and brilliant blog Parks of Interest, seriously if you haven't checked it out it's so wonderful!! - http://parksofinterest.tumblr.com/post/129860898118/tinysociopathshaw-person-of-interest-crack


	10. Massage Therapy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank y'all so much for the comments and the reading!!! :-) Sorry, for the delay! I’m not sure it was worth it; I think this is mostly filler. However I think maybe the next chapter might be better, or maybe not. At least it’s already half written which is a first for me. Seriously, I just get way too distracted with all the amazing stories to read on this site :-)

Root and Shaw inched closer to the door opening, Zoe Morgan aka The Fixer sauntered a little more to the door and smiled at both of them, her eyes lingering longer on the tall hacker. 

“I was wondering when someone might come to look for John,” the tall fixer smirked. “I heard someone kneed him in the groin, batted him with an oar and then threw him down this hatch,” Zoe pointedly looked at Shaw and tilted her head. 

Shaw winced subtly through Zoe’s whole description of her jellyfish antics. The more she kept hearing about yesterday, the more she didn’t want to know. She could also feel Root’s eyes on her, even though her head was throbbing with a massive headache and exhaustion felt like a heavy weight covering her entire body there was a strong sexual hum coursing through her body. She wanted Root right now, and then she really wanted a nap. However, pancakes would help since the other two weren’t an option at the moment. 

“How’s the big lug doing?” asked Root with concern in her voice. She had heard so much about Zoe Morgan, however never had the chance to meet the legendary fixer yet in the flesh. 

“He’s fine, nothing like a little TLC,” once again both women couldn’t help notice that Zoe was pantless, with the long men’s shirt barely covering her lower regions and her designer underwear. “He’s in the shower right now, want some pancakes?” 

Shaw moved forward, her whole body brushing up against the tall hacker, which caused Root to hide a smirk. Shaw walked past Zoe further into the hatch with Bear following behind her. Root moved closer to Zoe, “It’s such a pleasure to finally meet the legendary Zoe Morgan, fixer extraordinaire and one special friend to John,” Root’s tone took on a seductive octave when referencing the last part. 

Zoe smirked at Root, “You’re even prettier in person. The last time I saw you was through a window, spying with John,” the fixer crossed her arms against her chest. “And apparently, you’re damn good at a taser I hear, I’ll have to get some tips.” Zoe winked at the tall hacker, “I can see why Shaw likes you.” Root was sure she could feel Shaw rolling her eyes further in the hatch, while she couldn’t conceal a blush creeping up on her face. 

Shaw had no idea her face sparked up with the mention of the heavenly carbs, it was the only thing not making her head ache in pain. Zoe walked back through the doorway towards the light and delicious smells of fluffy batter cakes cooking. 

Root hung back for a second and looked up, “Hey, Lionel! Want some pancakes?” she shouted even though the high volume of her own voice made her grab her head in pain. She could barely make out the detective’s face at the top of the ladder above ground. 

“Why am I not surprised there’s a brunch going on with you people in a underground bunker in the middle of a jungle,” Fusco’s trademark sarcasm was beaming strongly down the tunnel as he lowered himself down the ladder. 

“So do you want blueberry or plain?” Root yelled back, again holding her head. Lionel just made a scowl face and shook his head while descending down on the ladder and into the madness of his teammates. 

Once they stepped into the open space from the tunnel hallway they were quite surprised to find themselves in a very upscale what could only be described as a condo. There was tasteful artwork on the walls, a dog bed for Bear in the corner and full decked out library shelves with one of those cool ladders on one long wall. Just about every other luxurious amenity a person could think of from big screen televisions, a sound system to the state of the art open kitchen area where Zoe was tossing flapjacks on the stove. 

Reese walked out of one of the hallways drying his head with a towel, dressed in casual trendy resort clothes. Once he looked up and saw almost the whole gang he raised his eyebrows and turned to Zoe. 

“John, your rescue mission has arrived,” Zoe smiled to John as he walked over and took the spatula from the tall fixer’s hand. She got a hint and moved toward one of the hallways, “Excuse me while I get into something less comfortable.” 

Root roamed around the hatch, checking out rooms, the bookshelves and everything else. Bear and Fusco trailed behind her. She was happy to see there was an exercise room, a computer room, several guest bedrooms, full stocked food and weapons storage and full surveillance room for the entire island; Harry sure knew how to build a secret underground lair. All that was missing was a vine hanging from the jungle to pull a secret cave wall moving to reveal another hidden entrance with a keypad. And maybe a submarine that turned into a car or motorcycle that could race on land. 

Shaw watched her mayhem twin in the kitchen to make sure he didn’t burn the pancakes, “Reese, what is Zoe doing here? How did Bear get here?” 

Root, Fusco and Bear joined them again in the kitchen after their brief hatch tour. The tall hacker walked past Shaw and couldn’t help place her hand on the petite asset’s lower back and let it linger while moving around her to get to the refrigerator. Shaw wanted to grab Root’s wrist, but couldn’t decide if it was to twist it or shove it down her pants; she had a lot conflicting ideas along with her jellyfish hangover migraine in her head. Root opened the refrigerator to look for something to drink.

Fusco sat on a bar stool and watched Shaw monitor Reese while he cooked. 

Harold’s voice startled everyone and they looked around to see him walking in through another hallway, maybe there was a secret cave moving wall thing entrance. “I asked Ms. Morgan to bring Bear,” Finch continued to walk in carrying a briefcase and small box which he sat on long table between the kitchen and living room. 

“Where in the hell did you come from?” asked a surprised Shaw. Root came up behind her to stand so close she was practically leaning on the shorter woman. Shaw pushed her ass out to shove Root back, however this just made the hacker grab onto her waist and pull their lower regions together. The petite asset thought thankfully, no one was paying attention to them since Harold entered the hatch. Shaw shoved away from Root, who followed her and just smirked. 

“Harry, this is cryptic even for you,” teased Root, she then walked back to the refrigerator and lightly nudged Fusco to come over, she pulled out juice and other breakfast related essentials. She motioned for the detective to set the items on the long table. 

All eyes stared at the mysterious man in glasses. “I have not been entirely forthcoming about this trip. And I might have fabricated a large portion to bring you all here…well, not here specifically, I had hoped to keep this safe house a bit more…safe and secret.” Shaw and Reese gave Finch hard stares, “Okay, the whole trip has been a ruse from the beginning. I thought everyone could use a break, so I fabricated the story of the scientists to get everyone away for a vacation.” Harold sheepishly looked over to his friends and teammates to gauge their reactions. 

“No one was ever in danger?” asked Reese in a surprised tone while pausing to flip the pancakes. 

“Why not just say you wanted to take everyone on vacation?” asked Shaw with a confused look on her face. “I’ve said before we needed a vacay. And again, that you needed some sun.”

“A vacation with a purpose seemed like a better idea,” said a hopeful Harold as he sat down at the long table. 

“Oh, thank god we can stop all the silly, nonsensical therapy sessions,” relief set into Shaw’s voice while Root just shrugged coming over and setting the table for brunch. 

“The therapy sessions seemed like a good way to bond as a team,” said Harold thoughtfully. 

“Except, you were excused from them, not really fair Harold. Not cool,” Shaw pointed a finger at Harold. 

“So not really an all hands on deck situation at all?” It was hard to tell if Reese was disappointed or relieved. 

Finch opened up his briefcase and pulled out some papers. “Actually, with what Ms. Shaw discovered, there is something of a threat here now that I can see,” Harold put some papers and a tablet on the table, “It’s completely unexpected but it might appear someone is here to destroy these underwater sea cables, and kill anyone that gets in their way.” 

“I knew this would turn into a mission, never dull a moment with you guys,” Zoe had remerged now wearing a nice elegant sundress; she walked over and stood next to John. “No bacon for Shaw?”

Shaw glared angrily over to Reese. Root walked by and set a package of bacon to cook in front of the tall primary asset just as he smirked. 

As the team ate, they discussed theories over the underwater sea cables and Samaritan’s possible and likely involvement. The food seemed to help with Shaw and Root’s jellyfish hangover, although after effects still lingered. While Harold, Reese and Zoe looked over some maps of the island and Fusco took Bear out for a walk, Shaw took her chance to investigate the hatch. 

Shaw wandered over to the bookshelves where there was a large selection of vinyl records. “It’s quite the collection Harry has here. Look two of your favs, Marvin Gaye and Nina Simone,” Root came up behind Shaw then moved slightly to her side to face the petite asset while she continued to peruse the shelves. 

“How did you know…” Shaw looked over to Root with a stern look on her face. 

“You might have mentioned it to me yesterday…” Root couldn’t help a broad smile across her face, “…or sang to me.” The tall hacker moved in close to the petite firecracker, she kept her hands in her short pockets even though she wanted to reach out and run her hands over Shaw’s back and lower. Root looked over and saw the boys and Zoe were still busy going over the maps, she took her hands out of her pockets and put one hand Shaw’s waist once again and one on the bookshelf. 

“Getting awfully handsy today,” Shaw stilled for a moment but didn’t move away. Since they were both wearing shorts, standing this close with the legs bumping each other the skin on skin contact was wrecking havoc on both of their libidos. 

“Guess I miss all the contact from yesterday, besides no one can beat you in the handsy department…” Root made a gesture to her neck and chest with all the hickeys and faint bruising from Shaw’s sex crazed jellyfish infused state. The hacker noticed that Shaw wasn’t moving away or taking her hand off her waist.

“Uh, what Marvin Gaye song did I sing?” Shaw really hoped in every bone of her body that wasn’t the one she feared it would be. She pretty much knew the cringe worthy answer before Root uttered the embarrassing song title. 

“Sexual healing,” Root slipped one finger in the waistband of Shaw’s shorts and rubbed her finger back and fourth, “it does help relieve the mind…and make you feel fine…” The hacker zoned in on the petite firecracker's extremely kissable lips and almost reached her destination if Shaw hadn’t blinked and took one tiny step back breaking the sexual haze between the two of them. And thankfully while the boys and Zoe were still engrossed in the maps they were pouring over. 

Shaw had to take a big gulp; she was indeed need of some of that remedy and knew the hacker had been too for a long time. Lucky bitch Reese just got his last night. She was losing her mind now, not only her body around Root. She didn’t know which throbbing area was worse, the one in her head or the one in her lower regions. She guessed probably the one in her lower regions. 

Root was very surprised that Shaw remained so close to her at the bookshelves, maybe the jellyfish side effects were still lingering around. She had to admit to herself and to Shaw; she was missing all the physical contact from yesterday. And she still had a killer headache from it. Maybe they could just make a plan today then take the rest of the day off at the beach. Harold had just admitted this was a vacation after all. 

“Harry, what’s the plan of action?” asked Root, really hoping for the rest of the day off. She had been so consumed with Shaw’s jellyfish sex crazed antics that she didn’t notice the Machine hadn’t been talking to her much in the last few days. Maybe the Machine was in on Harry’s vacation idea, she had to ask her later. 

“Well, so far the Roth couple seems most likely our perpetrator so…” Harold couldn’t finish his sentence. 

“Don’t say it Harold,” Shaw warned the man in glasses. 

“…there is a another group session in 20 minutes,” Harold finished despite death stares from Shaw and Reese. 

“Harold, no. You just said we are on vacation. Couples therapy with Fusco is more work than actual work,” Shaw shook her head, and then winced forgetting it hurt to move her head. 

“Hey, at least I didn’t try and bash your skull in with an oar,” said the defensive detective. 

Root went and stood on one side of John, Zoe was on the other side. “Don’t worry Zoe, I think John and I will be getting divorced soon.” The hacker looked over to her favorite primary asset who just shrugged and looked away. 

Finch glanced at all her teammates and thought maybe group therapy sessions weren’t the team bonding experiences he thought. 

As the group walked back to the resort, Shaw caught Reese slightly alone with Zoe chatting away with Root up ahead and Finch and Fusco talking about Bear and his love for the beach. 

“So I heard I owe you an apology, for…uh…kicking you around,” Shaw said a little sheepishly towards Reese. 

“You did get in some good jabs. You were pretty determined. And you had told me to make sure nothing happened while you were under the influence.” Reese looked over at Root who was talking with Zoe. “Just following your orders, although, you did seem pretty focused on Root…” Reese smiled to Shaw knowingly. 

“I think the correct term is out of my mind,” Shaw knew where he was looking, she glanced over to Root and immediately felt her temperature go up. The petite firecracker cursed that damn jellyfish, the scenery of this island, the lack of clothing, all the freakin hickeys and bite marks she kept seeing littered around Root’s next and upper torso. Shaw kind of desperately wanted to make all those marks again and remember it this time. 

“Or maybe….you secretly want to be an 80s karaoke singer and…” Reese smiled looking at Shaw.

“Reese, finish that sentence and I’ll knee you in the groin again…in front of your lady friend,” Shaw smiled back at Reese with a slight evil glint in her eyes. 

*****

When they arrived back at the resort, Root and Shaw had migrated to walking next to each other and didn’t really notice the rest of the group had stopped to wait for Bear to run around before heading indoors. 

“Once again, I ask. Where are your husbands?” asked a rather pissed off Joan who glared at Root and Shaw through a black eye. She was standing in the lobby; she looked as if she had been waiting for them. 

The Analog Interface and Petite Primary Asset looked around and didn’t know where Reese and Fusco had gone. Shaw once again cursed her jellyfish hangover as she had been just watching Root walk and nothing else. What the hell was wrong with her brain?

Root hadn’t realized the boys weren’t behind them anymore, she had been watching Shaw; who kept looking back at her so she wasn’t about to let go of that potential eye sex thing. 

“Two wayward couples who think they are at swingers retreat instead of saving their marriage retreat,” seethed a bitchy Joan to both Root and Shaw. 

Shaw studied the massive black eye that Joan was sporting. She leaned over to Root and whispered, “Did I do that?”

“I’m going to sue both of you for everything you have and everything your poor pathetic husbands have, you cheating bitches,” said the extremely angry assistant. 

“I’m guessing that would be a yes,” Shaw whispered back to Root who nodded. 

“And I’ve got all the proof to get a big pay day,” Joan said with an evil glint in her eyes. 

Joan held up her phone and a video started playing of three of them in the lobby from yesterday. Shaw moved her face quickly to the phone to see more closely, she literally couldn’t believe her eyes. There she was in the public lobby groping and sucking on Root. It looked completely foreign to her and yet at the same time, it didn’t which was really odd. And there it was, she decked Joan hard and then kissed Root hard. To say she was having a huge internal crisis was an understatement. She ran her hand over her face. There was one thing to be told a verbal collection of what her twelve hours of sex heat crazed jellyfish antics consisted of, it was completely different to actually see it pixelated. To see herself running her hands all over Root’s body, to see the tall hacker repeatedly try and disengage and discreetly push her away. However, when she pulled Root into a kiss, she saw her teammate lose her self-discipline and give in, a little. She really wanted to do that again and be able to remember it. 

Just then Dr. Tinswell entered the lobby and noticed the tension between the three women. She summoned the three women to her room to have a private talk. 

The last thing Shaw’s throbbing head needed was a private talk with the doctor over her failing fake marriage. Or her attraction to another fake married woman. She pinched the bridge of her nose. 

Root watched Shaw and smiled. This whole scenario was all too amusing for her. She thought maybe at this point she could just declare she was leaving John and then maybe continue the couples counseling with Shaw, which the petite firecracker would never agree to, which also amused her. 

Dr. Tinswell sat facing all three women. Joan sat in a chair while Root and Shaw shared a small couch. “I’ve heard some very troubling news in regards to both of your marriage’s workshop progress. Joan has informed me that quite possibly the two of you have not been honest to yourselves, your husbands and most of all...to your life's journey,” Dr. Tinswell had a very serious, earnest look on her face while looking back and fourth between Root and Shaw. 

Shaw was about to lose her shit with this woman. It was bad enough she had to pretend to be Fusco’s wife, and now she’s accused of cheating on him with Root. 

“I think Joan is mistaken, I was merely escorting Sammy her to room and the morphine along with the deadly jellyfish sting really made her loopy. Sammy leaned onto me because she lost her balance at one point. From a certain angle I guess it looked suggestive, however I think what Joan was solely mistaken.” Root gave a sympathetic look over to Joan with a weak smile, which Shaw knew meant she really wanted to shoot the annoying woman in the kneecap. 

“I’ve got proof right here,” Joan walked to Dr. Tinswell and aggressively shoved her phone in her face. The annoying assistant started frantically scrolling through her phone. “Something is wrong…where is the video?? It’s gone?? How could it be gone?” The assistant become obsessed and started swiping her fingers and hand over phone harshly while cursing at it at the same time. “These lying bitches did something to my phone,” Joan turned and looked stunned to Dr. Tinswell. 

While the doctor tried to calm down her assistant, “She remotely wiped the phone,” Root leaned over and whispered to Shaw, “And the hotel surveillance feed where the pesky assistant got the video.” The hacker noticed a shit-eating grin on the primary asset’s face. 

Shaw barely had enough nicety left in her to excuse herself to find her sweet husband with Root trailing behind her and Dr. Tinswell apologizing for her over zealous assistant. 

*****

Finch and Zoe had followed the two fake married couples to their next group session. Zoe was going to help Finch do some more background research while the fake married couples had their next therapy session. The Fixer was amused watching three of them have grumpy faces, while one face quirked into a small smile. “Chin up kids, this could be fun. And I already called dibs on the longest massage John.” Root passed them and entered the room lined up with massage tables and other necessary amenities for the relaxing therapy session. 

Reese didn’t look happy; he looked over at Zoe who raised her eyebrows. She whispered to Shaw, “Root kind of enjoys these therapy sessions doesn’t she?”

“Root likes torture period,” Shaw scowled then turned to Fusco. “NOT that I know.” 

“Sure thing baby cakes,” Fusco smacked Shaw on the behind and moved into the room, cackling to himself. The petite firecracker was seething at her fake husband.

“I’m going to become a widow soon,” Shaw said to the shocked face of Harold and amused face of Zoe before entering the room leaving John behind. 

“Honey, are you coming?” Root asked as she poked her head out of the room and outstretched her arm for John to take, she then winked at Zoe. Root pulled John into the room; he looked back at Zoe with what can only be described as a ‘help me’ face. 

Once the couples were situated on the massage tables, one ready to give and one ready to receive. Dr. Tinswell had instructed it didn’t matter which gender wanted to go first, any gender could go first; they weren’t playing the rules wives together then husbands. Shaw decided to take her turn first so Fusco was looming over her cracking his knuckles. 

“Leaving the sports bra on pudding pops?” asked Fusco with amusement in his voice, then whispered so only his fake wife could hear, “Didn’t figure you for the shy type Shaw, unless of course you’re trying to not over excite Coca Puffs over there so we can actually pay attention and see if this Roth couple is up to anything.”

Shaw didn’t want to think that she had already had one topless massage with Root just two nights ago, seemed like ages ago now. Her brain didn’t let her forget that she did end up bare chested and agreeing to let Root straddle her and forcibly grope her. She had to stop this line of thinking, or she would be thinking of Root while Fusco massaged her and that seemed like a gross idea. 

Dr. Tinswell walked through the room, expanding on more of her thoughts to the couples, “Massage is such a valuable tool in life. It rejuvenates, it relaxes and most importantly it arouses.”

Shaw didn’t want to sneak a glance at Root but she did before she put her head down on the table, of course the perky psychopath was already staring at her with those damn eyes. All the couples followed the doctor’s instruction for a thoroughly and way too long massage where four people were concerned. Shaw almost fell asleep during her massage by Fusco, while Root spent too much time pointing out some sunspots that John might want to get checked out. 

Then it was time to switch partners, so Fusco got on the table and so did Root. 

“Lionel, if you have a George Constanza ‘it moved’ moment, do not tell me,” Shaw growled out at her fake husband. 

“Believe me, I won’t. I’ll have shrinkage all the way,” the detective lowered his head on the table and prepared to be pummeled by his petite fake wife. 

“Glad to hear it,” said Shaw while she smacked Fusco’s ass so hard that he let out a small yelp. 

The husband of the older couple, Fred, was on the table now after administering his wife’s massage on the first round. Dr. Tinswell pretty much instructed the second half of spouses the same way as she did in the first round. Betty, the older woman, who Root and Shaw had met out by the beach the first day tried to be working her hardest on her husband’s massage and he seemed to be getting vocal about it pretty much causing everyone in the room to get uncomfortable except Dr. Tinswell. The older man started moaning very loud as Betty worked his lower back, then his legs. “Betty, Betty yes that’s the spot,” the older man moaned on and on. 

Shaw couldn’t help the slightly disgusted look on her face as she massaged her fake husband, she looked over at Reese who mirrored her image. Then she looked at Root who had a peaceful smile on her face as her fake husband gave her massage, Shaw noticed that the hacker did go topless. 

“Remember everyone…. rejuvenate, relax, arouse,” the doctor walked and talked through the room again. 

“Too much arousal coming from Fred if you ask me,” deadpanned Shaw to Fusco. 

Dr. Tinswell congratulated everyone on a successful massage then she left rather suddenly to help Betty and Fred with further instruction. The Roths got dress quickly and left the room with Fusco and Reese hot on their trails; Root had to get dressed so Shaw stayed behind as well. 

Before Root could get off the massage table, Shaw walked over and jammed her elbow into the hacker’s back. “Guess, I owe the Machine for erasing that file,” after lodging her elbow in hard, Shaw then started moving it around more gently. 

Root was taken aback by the sudden hands on action of her favorite primary asset on her back. “Apparently, The Machine dislikes Joan as much as we do,” she tried to hide her smile as much as she could to the dark haired petite temporary masseuse. 

Shaw put her elbow firmly onto Root’s back and added pressure. “Sometimes a massage can help when you’re not feeling all that great.” 

“Good to know,” Root replied back “…does it also help with extreme unresolved sexual release doctor?”

Shaw pressed even more firmly, pushing her elbow further into the hacker’s back. Root let out a combo yelp and moan, pleasure and pain melting together as it always seemed with her favorite primary asset. Then Shaw moved her hands to massage with firm pressure and more pleasure. 

“If you could tell The Machine…uh, thanks for me,” Shaw ran her hands slowly all the way down Root’s back and continued until she got to the towel then slid her hands underneath both the towel and the hacker’s underwear. She tried to control her shudders as her hands continued to slowly slip underneath Root’s black bikini briefs. Root’s breathing quickly picked up and a few drawn out moany sighs escaped from her mouth with a few whispered ‘Shaws’ in between. The petite firecracker squeezed and released the hacker’s firm buttocks a few times as her hands ran circles over the smooth ass. Then her hands slowly made their way back up Root’s torso, moving to the side to reach under the table; leaning down at the same time so her lips were nearly touching Root’s back. Then Shaw was just about to get on the table to straddle the hacker when an extremely annoying voice broke her sexual haze trance. 

“THIS is what I’m talking about! Doctor look at THIS!” Joan looked at Root and Shaw in shock and shook her head violently as she looked out in the hallway for Dr. Tinswell. 

When Joan turned her head back into the room and entered, pulling Tinswell with her. “Look at them!”

“Joan…” Tinswell sounded a bit exasperated by her assistant as she entered the room and saw Root alone looking up from the table at them. 

“Where did she go?” Joan demanded with a seething look at Root. 

“What are you talking about? I must have fallen asleep after Tinswell’s very informative massage counseling, I think John went to get me some water.” Root looked around bewildered with her best deer caught in headlights look on her face. 

“No, that’s a lie! Sammy was just here! She was giving Sam an erotic massage! Sammy had her hands down Sam's pants for fuck’s sake!” 

Root couldn’t help but smirk because one petite primary asset did indeed have her hands down her underwear and she wanted to shoot this woman for interrupting the groundbreaking moment. “Dr. Tinswell, I really don’t understand where these unfounded scandalous acquisitions are coming from. It’s a lot of negative energy being directed towards me.” 

Joan flared her nostrils. 

“Joan, do you have another one of your fixations? Do your mantras. Or this will be last your last retreat,” Dr. Tinswell looked to her assistant with a firmness and also with a hint of compassion. 

As soon as they left the room and the coast was clear, one of the cabinets in the room popped open. 

“Sameen, are you coming out of the cabinet?” asked a bemused Root. 

Shaw glared at Root as she pulled herself out of the small cabinet bringing along with her some towels falling out. 

“There really are some benefits of you being so compact,” Root smiled at the compact Persian. Shaw didn’t actually glare or scowl at her so she decided to push a little further, “Do you want to continue your thank you massage in private?” The hacker hoped her voice stayed firm, flirtatious and not shaky like she was feeling. She was trying for bold even though Shaw’s ministrations had left her with fireworks and sparklers going off inside her body. 

“Sure, why not,” Shaw didn’t want the hacker to think she was overly excited, which of course she was. Her body was releasing fluids everywhere. She might actually just take the hacker on the table right here and now if she didn’t think that annoying twat was going to interrupt them again. 

Root looked completely stunned and she knew not even her jellyfish adventure hangover could squish her joy. 

Shaw leaned over to Root, invading her personal space, her face very close to the hacker’s. “Go lay down on your bed,” the petite firecracker said lowly and slowly, “I’ll be there soon.” She stared intensely into Root’s eyes then locked in on wantonly leering at the hacker’s lips, before leaving the room. Root almost wondered if the jellyfish was still talking because she couldn’t believe her ears or that Shaw had just given her a brief massage. Or had Shaw just lusted after her lips? She was going to have to take advantage of this thank you massage; this might be her best opportunity yet. 

When Shaw arrived at Root’s room, the lights were turned off and there were candles lit everywhere. The petite primary asset couldn’t help a small smile that spread across her face; of course this dork ran over and tried to make this thank you massage some big romantic thing. Where in the hell did Root get all these candles? The room was filled with a nice scented candle smell wafting throughout the room, thankfully clearing out the funk from the night before of excessive ugly sweating and vomiting. She noticed the nerd even had her phone softly playing what could only be described as make out music. Was that Nina Simone? Shaw shook her head and sauntered over to the bed where Root was sprawled out face down, completely bare back, with the sheet stopping at her waist. She had no doubt that Root would have stripped down nude under that sheet. Shaw was just about to say something when she looked down at Root and realized the hacker was fast asleep. She was mesmerized by the angelic sleeping face, specifically that nose, well the whole face. She was very disappointed Root had fallen asleep, yet she knew how utterly exhausted she was and she bet the hacker was too or even more so. And she couldn’t shake the post jellyfish headache. She had heard too many stories throughout the day of Root running after her, taking care of her and fending off all kinds of intense gropings and sexual misconduct from her. She had to admit, she was pretty impressed with her fellow teammate, she didn’t know whether she would have had the stamina or the discipline to fight off such aggressive sexual advances if the tables had been reversed. The thing about Root, she tended to be all flirt and with little action so far, which was pretty respectable considering they were on the same team. Sure, she invaded personal space a lot of the times but she wasn’t handsy, well not really until today. Shaw walked around the room and blew out all the candles, and then she got kind of a mischievous glint in her eyes. She took off all her clothes then very slowly and gently crawled into bed with Root. The petite firecracker lifted the sheet carefully to leer at the tall hacker and got confirmation that she was indeed naked, good to know she wasn’t disappointed on that front. Shaw stared longingly at the hacker’s luscious nude form, trying not to openly drool once again all over the sheets. She wanted to run her hands down Root’s body, yet also wanted to let the exhausted woman sleep. She watched the hacker for a few minutes and before she knew it, she had fallen into a deep sleep.


	11. No Fuss, No Muss Agreement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so very very much for all the comments. Y’all are so sweet and funny! Hopefully, this is still mostly in character, even though it’s just me wanting to be on vacation with Team Machine. If I haven’t said it yet today, I really miss Team Machine. BIG THANKS to T_Ninja who came up with the fun, brilliant idea of role playing therapy :-)

Root rolled over in bed and tried to open her eyes. She thought she must still be dreaming because she saw a naked Shaw next to her in bed. The hacker’s eyes continued to try and focus. Maybe she needed her glasses? Why was she in bed naked with Sameen? The last thing she remembered was waiting for Shaw to give her a ‘thank you’ massage and she had taken off her clothes in hopes for a happy ending of sorts. She couldn’t imagine a scenario where Shaw volunteered to sleep naked next to her or could they have possibly have had sex and she blacked out because it was so mind blowing intense? She really wished if that had happened she would have remembered, she cursed her brain at the moment. She was defragging her brain in hopes of some salvageable data on what happened last night. The tall hacker couldn’t take her eyes off her favorite primary asset, and not just because the bed sheet had fallen down a bit to reveal Shaw’s naked breasts and torso. Root really wanted to reach and touch Shaw; she also liked staying in this moment. She laughed to herself; Sameen had spent the last three nights in her bed. She thought the only living creature that could beat that record was Bear. 

Shaw rolled over onto her stomach and buried her face further into a pillow. “Stop staring at me, and stop drooling, you lost enough fluids last night.” The petite primary asset smirked into the pillow; she did thoroughly enjoy teasing the tall hacker. 

“So…I take it last night’s thank you massage…lead to a happy ending?” asked a hopeful Root, although a tint of sadness on her face since she didn’t recall any details from the night before. 

“Shame, you don’t remember,” Shaw mumbled into the pillow.

“How shameful was it Sameen?” Root asked, as she inched closer to Shaw. 

“Uh…pretty…shameful…” even Shaw didn’t believe her weak, fake answer. Still, Shaw presented her best smug face, however Root wasn’t buying it. Shaw could feel Root closer to her now and it was causing all kinds of naked thoughts to run through her brain. 

The tall hacker got a mischievous grin on her face, “Sameen…The Machine just said…you…engaged in self intercourse while lying next to me,” Shaw lifted her head from the pillow with the most adorable bed hair and a surprised look on her face with her mouth hanging wide open. 

“What?!”

“Was I inspiration laying next to you…naked? Or…did your massage from Fusco get you reeved up?” asked a completely highly amused Root, as she inched even closer to Shaw. Root didn’t want to make Shaw completely uncomfortable so she remained twisted and covered up in one of the bed sheets. 

“The Machine is a lying bitch,” Shaw reacted quickly, her anger flaring up. 

“Aha, so nothing happened,” said the tall hacker in a more accusatory, flirty tone. 

“You are both such nerds,” replied a resigned Shaw, she yanked the sheet and rolled onto her back; she put her arm over her eyes. 

“Well, she’s a Machine, kind of implied,” Root shifted into a sitting position on the bed. 

“Self intercourse? That is what the Machine calls masturbation?” Shaw asked, not really wanting to know the answer; her brain hovering between going back to sleep and running all kinds of naked rampant thoughts involving the hacker and stripping the sheet off of her. 

“What’s your favorite name? I prefer…”Root liked where this conversation was going, her eyes lit up even more and she leaned over to Shaw; who kept her arm over her eyes. 

“I don’t want to know,” Shaw huffed, she could feel once again how close Root was leaning over her. She could almost feel and taste her skin this close. 

“Well, considering how many times you’ve had the leading role during my muffin buffin…” Root continued on even though she knew Shaw didn’t want to hear and it could lead to another epic case of sexual harassment on her part if her and Sameen were ever remotely in more normal working conditions. 

“Root seriously?” Shaw pinched the bridge of her nose, her eyes still closed. 

“…and your name has been…sometimes whispered…moaned during my…saucing the taco?”

“Stop…” Shaw ran her hand through her hair, even though secretly she was holding down a small chuckle because this woman that pushed all her buttons, who knew just how to perfectly annoy her to the core; yet also, shockingly aroused her at the same time to an inconceivable level. “Well, it was a once in a lifetime thing, too bad you don’t remember,” said the petite primary asset as she sat up on her elbows and looked at the tall hacker. 

“That’s just rude Sameen…especially to someone who had to endure your sex crazed jellyfish state,” Root threw out a pout face to Shaw. 

“Please, I bet you loved every minute of it,” Shaw made sure the sheet was still covering her because having this conversation while both of them were naked, definitely not the smartest decision. 

“Sure, there were aspects...that were nice; however, for the most part it was torture. You were out of your of mind and the biggest clit tease ever,” Root moved to be parallel to Shaw, she nudged her leg to Shaw’s; actually more of a little kick. The petite firecracker kicked the hacker back. 

Root decided to challenge Shaw, “Sure you can take punching, kicking, gunshots, knifing in easy strides but what about a physical onslaught of sucking, humping, kissing?”

“Easy peasy,” replied Shaw quickly and confidently. 

“Let’s test your will power, like mine was tested,” replied Root also quickly and confidently. 

“What…” before Shaw had time to respond Root got up on her knees and leaned into the petite firecracker’s neck; she started sucking, then added biting. Shaw was glad that Root couldn’t see her face because not only did she just roll her yes; she rolled them back into her head. Okay, maybe Root had some mighty self-control, which she had already speculated on and was grateful for in her own Shaw way. 

Root continued to suck and bite, then she paused and started planting kisses along Shaw’s neck up to her face. The hacker placed kisses along Shaw’s lips without ever landing one right on the target. Then Root placed hungry kisses all the way down Shaw’s chest, pulling the bed sheet down just a little not too much, all the while her hands roamed all over her favorite primary asset. When Root pulled back to stare into Shaw’s eyes, she could tell she was definitely turned on as her pupils looked blown out. Her favorite primary asset though was trying to play it cool. 

“Let me know when you start,” Shaw didn’t make eye contact then attempted to shrug and look bored, she sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees; in hope this would slow down the hacker’s amorous onslaught. 

The hacker leaned in and sucked on Shaw’s neck again, pushing her knees down. And when Root was successful with that action, she pulled up the petite primary asset in a semi-standing position. Both on their knees, Root ran her hands over Shaw’s backside, the bed sheet only covering half of the petite primary asset’s back. The hacker pulled their bodies together, her hand grabbing Shaw’s ass and squeezing hard. 

“I bet your flooded…want me to check,” Root knew she might be pushing it too far, yet she couldn’t stop herself. 

“Did I do that to you?” Shaw snapped her head up and looked into Root’s eyes. 

“No, only because I stopped you,” Root stared back at Shaw. 

Shaw did not want to admit that she was very close to pulling the bed sheet off herself, mere seconds from shredding the sheet covering Root and plunging her tongue into more than one of Root’s orifices. 

“It’s not so easy is it?” Root could totally tell she was getting to Shaw, which only flamed her internal flamer higher and hotter. 

“You had Reese and Fusco cockblocking you too,” it took all of Shaw’s will power to keep her arms stationary and immobile, she wanted so badly to map out every inch of Root’s body. Damnit, now a cheesy John Mayer song was stuck in her head. 

“And Harry. And that Joan,” Root leaned in again and sucked on Shaw’s neck, while her hands roamed. 

“You’re no saint. I saw you kiss me back in that video,” smirked Shaw and she grabbed one of Root’s wrists to push it back toward the owner’s body. Her other hand gripped the hacker’s waist in an awkward angle that caused Root very suddenly to yelp and very loudly. 

“Shaw!” Root started laughing and couldn’t stop. Shaw looked at her like she was even more crazier than usual.

The petite primary asset had never seen Root respond like this to anything before, what the hell happened? Then it dawned on her, “Seriously? You’re ticklish?” Shaw got a wicked smile on her face and decided to continue to tickle the hacker unmercifully. Shaw continued to torture the tall hacker poking, pinching and running her fingers all over the sensitive tickle infested areas many times. Then discovered more areas, including under the hacker’s arms. 

“Please, Sameen stop…” Root was breathless and unable to control her giggles. Her face was red, her chest was getting red from laughing so hard. Tickling torture was actual torture. The bed sheet wrapped around Root’s body got looser and looser while she thrashed around the bed. Shaw was practically on top of Root continuing the tickle torture. 

Shaw stopped for a moment and Root tried to catch her breath. Then Root jumped to get away fearing another tickle attack, Shaw grabbed the hacker’s ankle which elicited a scream. Shaw started her onslaught again, Root reached out to grab Shaw; both of them twisted up in the sheets. The hacker wasn’t successful in trying to take hold of Shaw’s wrist. The strong petite asset managed to get to the tickle spots again, the hacker screamed and laughed uncontrollably. 

“Shaw…please…” Root begged and laughed. 

The laughter mixed in with moaning and thrashing; Shaw couldn’t take it anymore she stopped tickling Root. Root tried to speak between her labored breathing; she was sweating now and completely flushed from head to toe. 

“One and you’re done, right?” Root panted and looked at Shaw intensely, “Three, if the person is really good?”

“Reese is a mouthy bitch,” Shaw’s eyes betrayed her and stared wantonly at the hacker, “I’m a pragmatist, no fuss, no muss…you’re a huge hot muss.” 

“So you admit I’m hot,” Root smirked larger than ever with a twinkle in her eyes. 

“And a huge muss,” added Shaw. 

“I suggest, since we’re trapped on this island with its certain charms…we go by that kind of rule…a pragmatist kind of thing. An island pragmatist thing. Doesn’t matter how many times as long as it’s on the island. It’s the least you can do for teasing me for twelve hours resulting in an epic case of blue bean,” Root looked into Shaw’s eyes, which stared back briefly before darting off across the room. The hacker couldn’t help a smile; her favorite petite primary asset did look to be weighing this option in her mind. 

“I see it your eyes Sameen, you push and pull with me just as much as I do with you. You always pull away, what are you afraid of?”

“Root we work together, it’s not a good idea. In fact, it’s a really bad idea,” Shaw pulled away. 

“And getting into bed naked with me last night was a good idea?” Root pushed back. 

Shaw started tickling Root again, which elicited more screams, more laughter, mixed in with some pleas of surrender and lots of moans. The petite primary asset couldn’t take it any longer, as the hacker once said, there is no time like the present. Shaw paused for a moment, she looked down at Root flushed, sweating, the sheet pulled down exposing her chest. She thought why the hell not, especially now if they had an island rule. The hacker still had her eyes closed trying to control her breathing, so Shaw leaned down to kiss her. Root didn’t know that Shaw was trying to lean down to kiss her; she thought the petite firecracker was reaching out to continue her tickle torture, she yanked out her arm to stop her and smacked Shaw right in the face. 

“Sameen!” Root’s elbow hit Shaw hard in the nose. Blood started pouring out of the petite asset’s nose. Root rushed to see Shaw’s face. “Sameen! Are you okay? Please, tell me I didn’t break your beautiful nose!”

Shaw covered her nose with her hands, she probed her nose without even flinching. Root jumped off the bed, the twisted bed sheet falling down; she ran to the bathroom and returned with a box of tissues. 

“No, it’s not broken…you’re lucky,” Shaw looked fiercely at Root, who gingerly placed tissues to stop the bleeding. Shaw grabbed the tissues from Root to do it herself. She shoved parts of tissue up her nose, both nostrils. The petite bleeding nose asset couldn’t tear her eyes off a completely naked analog interface in front of her looking concerned, offering more tissues. Shaw pinched her nose, jammed another tissue up her nose to stop the bleeding, she wiped her hands on the tissues; her hands a little red from the blood. Shaw then ran her fingers through her hair. 

“You couldn’t be any hotter if you tried,” Root said in her most lascivious tone and stared wantonly at every inch of the primary asset. “Let me kiss it and make it better.”

“Root…” Shaw warned. 

Root leaned it and gently kissed the side of Shaw’s nose, the petite firecracker reached her tipping point; she slightly turned her head to capture the hacker’s lips. They both kissed at each hungrily. The petite primary asset broke the kiss to shrug out of the twisted sheet and pushed the tall hacker down on her back. Shaw crawled up the taller woman’s body and without pausing lunged for her lips again. Root leaned up to return the kiss fiercely. Shaw trapped Root’s head with putting one arm on each side, her hair spilling down on Root’s face. The tissues were a little block, however it didn’t stop either one of them. 

“So anything happens on this island, stays on this island?” asked Shaw to Root to completely clarify and double check. She couldn’t believe she was actually going to agree to this, but then again if she didn’t have the hacker right now she might enter another sex crazed phrase and this time there would be no jellyfish to blame. 

“Absolutely,” Root beamed up at Shaw, touching her nose slightly, adjusting the tissues in the petite primary asset’s nose. 

“You would pretty much say anything at this point right now?” 

Root so wanted to add, ‘So would you’ however she knew that would push Shaw away so kept her mouth shut, well for words. 

They both deepened the kiss at the same time. As much as the other times Shaw kissed Root while under the jellyfish spell and each one being electrifying this one was even more intense and charging because it was truly Shaw; and one analog interface thought if her heart were to beat any faster it would crack her chest open. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Root said rather angrily as she broke away from the dueling tongue kiss, she was losing and it was the most pleasurable loss of her life. Shaw opened her eyes confused. 

“Yeah, yeah geesh Root we’re getting there…hold on,” Shaw frantically pulled at the sheet and blanket separating them from skin on skin contact. 

“No, She’s telling me that everyone is on the other side of that door right now,” Root looked towards the bedroom door. 

“What?” Shaw snapped but not moving from lying on top of Root, not moving at all. 

“For some reason Harry and the gang are all here. We have work to do,” Root ran her hands over Shaw’s backside, then up into her hair; pushing the hair out of the petite firecracker’s face. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” now it was Shaw’s turn to be pissed. 

“If only we had time, unless…how fast are you?” Root struggled to untangle her legs from the sheets so she could wrap them around Shaw. 

However, Shaw was already disentangled and getting dressed. “I’m going out the balcony.” 

Root looked at her favorite primary asset with her head tilted, “Sameen, you’re just going to shimmer down the building? We’re at least five stories up or higher.” 

“It’s better than being ribbed for consummating…or copulating or whatever…that didn’t happen from the peanut gang.” 

Root did enjoy the show of Shaw getting dressed, hugely disappointed that nothing happened, however with a possible new agenda set in action the likely of something happening seemed very high. And her lips still felt on fire from the kiss. 

“Consummate? Are you proposing something?” Root beamed at Shaw, the primary asset sat down on the edge of the bed to tie her boots. The hacker took this opportunity to press her bare chest against her favorite primary asset and sprinkle kisses all over her neck. Root could feel and see the goose bumps popping up all along Shaw’s arms and legs, plus she heard a faint moan. 

Despite the delicious kissy onslaught Shaw reluctantly stood up rolled her eyes at the hacker. “I’m not doing a walk of shame out there with all of them, especially since we didn’t get to have any fun shame.” Shaw finished lacing up her boots and putting her hair in a ponytail. 

“Sameen they already think we’re sleeping together, your jellyfish show didn’t help disprove any theories. It’s no big deal, we just saw Reese and Zoe’s after glow.” Shaw glared at her, “Or we do it your way. And display the façade of platonic co-workers.” Root walked over and stood naked in front of Shaw before she ventured out into the balcony and her crazy descent scaling down the building. “Do we have uh…no fuss, no muss agreement then?” The hacker bit her bottom lip nervously. 

“Whatever,” said the petite primary asset looked up and down at the naked hacker, how could she refuse at all. Shaw pulled Root down for a deep kiss, biting her bottom hard enough to leave a mark. “Put some clothes on, or everyone will think you’ve spent all morning self-intercoursing yourself.” 

Shaw climbed over the balcony railing and scaled her way down the building. She knew Reese and Fusco would never let her live it down, probably Zoe too if they saw her exiting Root’s room after the hacker had been screaming during her tickle torture. Once she hit the ground, she jogged back to the entrance of the resort and took the elevator up to the room. 

Shaw entered Reese and Root’s room with bloody tissues still stuffed up her nostrils, some smudges on her clothes from the climb down the building and breathing heavy. Finch, Reese, Fusco and Zoe all looked at her with raised eyebrows, the group then turned their heads to look at Root’s bedroom door, which remained closed. 

“Just coming back from a run…thought I would stop by this room,” Shaw stretched her arms and legs for dramatic effect. “To see what was going on? Any news yet?”

“Did you get hit in the face on your run?” Reese was having a hard time holding back a big smirk. 

“Yeah, Rocky…tell Coca Puffs less coca and more puff,” smirked Fusco at his fake wife. 

“It’s my allergies,” huffed Shaw as she made her way to the kitchen to get some water. She couldn’t tell if they believed her lie or not. Again, it didn’t help that Root had been screaming her name and she was bleeding, damnit. Suddenly, Root opened the door with wet hair and dressed in what was becoming her island attire, shorts and V-neck t-shirt. 

“Good morning, kids. Everyone sleep well? John, nice of you to stay over at the hatch and give your room to Sameen, to get a break from that snoring,” Root gave a playful smile to Fusco. 

“What snoring, my fake wife hasn’t spent one night in our room, I’m started to get offended,” the detective looked over to his fake wife who was busy downing a glass of water. 

Harold looked around at his friend/co-workers and decided to move forward with today’s plan. “Hopefully, we can figure out soon who is targeting the under sea cables, a few more days tops then go back home.” 

“You know Harold, it’s been medically proven that the brain needs at least two weeks non-stop vacation to fully relax and recharge,” Root smiled at Harold, then she glanced over to Shaw. The hacker wanted to have as much time on the island now that her favorite primary asset has agreed to a booty call arrangement of sorts. Maybe she could even prolong the investigation, perhaps slow it down in parts, maybe a little light sabotage here and there? Nothing dangerous of course, the rest of the team could benefit from some much-needed R & R too. 

Shaw knew were Root was going with this, the longer they stayed on the island; the more the hacker could actually physically flirt her up and not just verbal anymore. The petite primary asset thought a full two weeks vacation could be very beneficial; she didn’t know if she would be able to get the tall hacker out of her system in just a few days with possibly only a few hook-ups. She might need prolonged, intense sessions to fully get tired of the hacker. Even though her nose was stinging from the hit, her lips were too and she could barely make eye contact with the hacker without wanting to see her naked again. 

Finch seem to take in the information, then continued on with what he was saying, “The Roths are on the beach right now, so why don’t Mr. Fusco and Ms. Shaw go talk with them while Ms. Morgan and I check their room.”

“Finch, I’ll cover the room,” Reese said quickly with a glance to Zoe. 

“Mr. Reese, you and Ms. Grooves have a private therapy session in a few minutes,” Finch said much to the frown of Reese and slight delight of Root. 

“Finch…” Reese looked at a lose for words, “…I think our resources would be put to better use elsewhere.” The tall primary asset added with a pained look on his face, it was obvious to everyone in the room he would rather have a root canal than have another therapy session. 

“C’mon John, could be very enlightening. Just pretend I’m Zoe,” Root smiled and looped her arm through Reese’s arm as she winked to the tall fixer. 

“Is it more hot tub therapy?” asked Shaw. 

“Why did you want to see me in a bikini again Shaw?” Root teased, even though her favorite primary asset had just seen her completely au natural a few minutes before.

“No, I just want to mentally prepare myself if I had to share a tub again with Fusco,” Shaw threw some shade over to her fake husband. 

“Hey, Small Fry you’re not my ideal tub mate either,” Fusco replied back to his fake wife. 

“Would that be me, Lionel?” asked Root as she batted her eyes at the detective for a fun effect. She almost loved tormenting other team members as much as Shaw. 

“No, I choose Reese,” Fusco said very matter of fact. Reese raised his eyebrows towards Fusco, so did everyone in the room. “Geesh, what’s with your people; because Reese is quiet and respectful, bunch of loonies. Let’s go Stubby to chat up these perps.” And with that Fusco was out the door with Shaw following behind him, pulling out the bloody tissues from her nose. 

*****

Dr. Tinswell sat in a chair near a small couch in one of the smaller conference rooms, she instructed Reese and Root to sit on the couch. When they sat down, Root reached over and grabbed John’s hand to hold. John raised his eyebrows to her. 

“What you’re hold Caroline Turning’s hand but not mine?” whispered Root to John. 

“Today’s session will be role playing,” said Dr. Tinswell as she looked back and fourth between the fake married couple. 

Root could feel John stiffen immediately, which caused her a half smile and to squeeze his hand harder. 

“Sam, why don’t you go first,” Dr. Tinswell lifted up her notepad and adjusted her glasses to observe the exercise. 

Root looked a little perplexed on how to do start, she then lowered her voice as much as possible and whispered; “I’m Batman.” Root looked over at John who shook his head.

Dr. Tinswell looked very confused, “Sam, I’m not quite sure I understand, are you saying your husband thinks he’s Batman?”

“John…likes to be a hero, and he’s really good at it. Except not everyone can be saved,” Root stared John in the eyes. 

“Saved in what way? He tries to save people like a vigilante that lost his parents? Does he wear a cape and mask?” asked Dr. Tinswell while Reese glared at Root for her usual nonsense. 

“Uh, no…” Root didn’t want Dr. Tinswell to Google or coming close to their real identities, “…John rescues…cats. He tries to save every cat,” John looked at Root with very surprised eyes. The hacker continued on talking again in the lowest voice she could muster, “He saves so many cats and brings them home. I’m turning into a cat woman.”

“John, do you feel that every cat needs to be saved?” Dr. Tinswell asked the tall primary asset very seriously. 

Reese sat speechless for a moment, “I guess if they don’t have a home?”

“A forever home, right John?” Root egged Reese on in her low voice; however he wasn’t biting. “John is so loving with the cats, especially when they have to clear out their hairballs. He helps even with the after hairball discharge which is kind of like the placenta, right sweetie?” John pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. Root ran her hand up and down the tall primary asset’s arm with a wicked smile. "He's one big cat daddy." 

Dr. Tinswell seemed very confused by this over share from John’s wife, she shook her head and moved on, “John, it’s your turn,” the doctor turned to Reese and studied him through her glasses that inched further down her nose. 

Reese turned to Root, “Hey…” John looked pained to say the next word, “…sweetie…is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me.” Root didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or smack John. 

Once again, Dr. Tinswell looked slightly alarmed, “Does Sam actually carry around a weapon, John?”

“No, just a line. Sam flirts a lot, with everyone,” Reese felt like he had to give the therapist something so the focus could shift off of him and onto Root, who he admitted was better equipped to handle the situation. 

“Does that bother you? Does she flirt with someone in particular more often than others?”

“Just one, however it’s just to annoy the other person, so it’s mostly amusing,” Reese smirked thinking of Shaw and how agitated she becomes when Root lays it on thick to her. 

“It is really fun to see how hot and bothered she gets sometimes,” Root didn’t even care if the doctor caught the slip of ‘she’; it was kind of bonding moment learning that John found annoyed Shaw amusing. Root bumped her shoulder into John’s and smiled at him. 

Dr. Tinswell frantically took notes, some of the highlighted words and phrases were ‘Dangerous? Dark sexual desires? BDSM? Guns?’; her brow furrowed as she looked between the fake married couple. 

“I would imagine it’s not amusing for the other person involved. Sam, this sounds like a serious issue to work on. This could be jeopardizing your marriage.” Root had a really hard time not rolling her eyes. 

“Hey, doc. I’ll just start flirting more with John,” Root once again lowered her voice to a deep whisper, “All the time. Every day. Every hour. In person, on the phone,” the hacker threatened to Reese, the tall primary asset looked as if he just got shot in the stomach. 

*****

Fusco and Shaw sat near the beach on lounge chairs looking out over the ocean while patiently waiting for the Roths to show up. Shaw was in her black bikini again, wearing sunglasses and somehow felt that Root was ogling her somewhere, even it was from Google earth cameras she was commandeering to do it. Zoe walked up and sat down on the end of Shaw’s long lounge chair. 

“Harold, wanted to see if you could plant this on one of the Roths,” the fixer handed the petite primary asset a small tacking device. 

“Got that Buttercup. It’s not often I’m near a beautiful ocean, gonna to take a dip in the Pacific until the Roths show up,” said Fusco as he got up and headed toward the ocean in his long board swim suit shorts. 

“Try not to get stung by a deadly jellyfish dear,” Shaw deadpanned as her fake husband marched off toward the waves. 

Zoe moved over to Fusco’s empty lounge chair and stretched out, “This is a working vacation right?” she smiled to Shaw. 

Shaw looked over and Zoe, she scrunched up her face then asked the fixer, “So Zoe...you and John…how does that work?”

The elegant fixer looked momentarily taken aback by the forward question, then she realized this was Shaw so it wasn’t so surprising, “I see him when I see him, really nothing more than that,” Zoe said while she looked over at Shaw. “I don’t think either of us wants anything more at the moment.” Since both women were wearing sunglasses it was a tad easier to conceal anything given away by the eyes. 

“So…the two of you aren’t in a relationship?” even with her sunglasses on, Shaw stared out at the ocean as Fusco waded into it with caution. 

“Depends on your definition,” Zoe answered then added, “I think sometimes, being with someone is just being gross with someone. Sharing body fluids, bad breath, grouchy moods.” 

“In that case, I think we’re all dating Reese,” Shaw smirked and looked briefly at Zoe who smiled back. 

“Shaw, I don’t know you that well. I’m not sure anyone does. In my experience, if you share more than two bodily fluids with someone, you’re probably in a relationship of some kind with them.” 

Shaw grimaced and scowled at Zoe. 

“Sex is usually two bodily fluids. So more than two, it’s definitely a relationship. Of some kind,” the fixer kept her eye on the petite primary asset. 

“What if you haven’t had sex yet?” Shaw occupied herself with putting sunscreen on her arms. 

“Are we talking about someone in particular?” asked Zoe already knowing the answer. 

Shaw sighed, “Root helped me out the other day with the jellyfish sting, things got pretty gross so…just wondering if I had to call her a friend now instead of the annoying woman I want to shoot again,” Zoe looked at her with questioning eyes, “I threw up on her a few times…and uh, I might have mounted her while…she was trying to use the toilet. I was out of mind, one of the deadliest stings in the world,” Shaw made her case once again. 

“No need to present your case, I heard all about it; sounds like a near death experience,” Zoe said in her most comforting tone. 

“I blacked out for twelve hours, so who knows what all I did,” Shaw shook her head. “Although, Root is having evil fun giving me tidbits here and there.”

“Hey, if she’s still around then you’ve got a friend for life. If she’s still flirting with you…you might have found your wife,” Zoe said with an amused smile on her face. 

“Ugh, you sound like you’ve been spending too much time with Root already,” Shaw sat up and stared hard at Zoe, “And that concludes girl talk which if repeated will get you shot in the knee,” Shaw smiled a fake smile to Zoe. “That also includes shooting Reese in the knee.”

Fusco came trudging back to the lounge chairs, Zoe took that as her cue to go find Harold to see what he found. As Zoe was leaving the Roths were arriving, occupying the lounge chairs a few feet over. “Shaw, don’t worry. I like my knees,” said Zoe as she turned around and walked away. Fusco gave a confused look to his fake wife who just shrugged then motioned with her head in the direction of the Roths. 

Shaw got up from her lounge chair and sauntered over to the Roths, the petite primary asset then broke out her undercover nice personality, “Hi, Craig and Gina. Getting some sun?” Thankfully, Dr. Tinswell had said everyone’s name repeatedly so it wasn’t weird that even though they haven’t had an actual conversation yet, they all knew each other’s names. 

“Oh hi, Sammy. Yeah, catching some rays before our private session. Same for you two?” Gina eyed the Fuscos, Lionel smiled up at her from his lounge chair.

Shaw went back over and sat down next to Fusco, who then whispered in her ear, “We need to loosen them up.”

“Booze, I’ll go to the bar,” Shaw stood up. 

“Always helps, maybe a game of some sort too?” Fusco scrunched up his face. 

Next thing the Fuscos knew they were playing a volleyball match against the Roths and they were losing to the very competitive couple. Shaw looked up and saw Root and Reese walking toward them from the resort. The petite primary asset had to hide a smile as she watched Root only looking at her and licking her lips. She shook her head; Root was about as subtle as a neon sign on a darkened highway. 

“Why don’t we do girls versus boys?” Root suggested as got close to the volleyball net. 

“Good idea,” said Gina as she pointed to the tall hacker. 

The players switched sides, as they did Root walked over and leaned into Shaw, “She told me that you were in your black bikini so I had to rush down here.” Shaw had the volleyball in her hand and she used it to position it between her and Root, not trusting the hacker to not touch her; they did have a cover to maintain. However, it didn’t stop Root from putting her hands on top of Shaw’s hands where she was holding the ball. Shaw felt the heat of Root’s hands, the slight rubbing the hacker was administrating and the eyes; those damn eyes. The primary asset was completely lost for a moment in the hacker’s eyes until Reese came over and jerked the ball away from his two co-workers who were momentarily having a lapse in judgment. 

“Shaw, get any viable info yet?”

Reese’s questions shook Shaw out of her Root trance, “Not yet, we’ve only played one game. I think they need more booze. Any viable info about your private therapy session?” 

“I’m going to flirt with John now,” Root teased to both of her co-workers. 

Shaw might have reacted too quickly for her own liking, “Why? For the mission?” The petite primary asset gave a cold hard stare to the tall male primary asset even without fully knowing why she was doing it. 

“Also, if the doctor says we run a shelter for cats, go with it,” the hacker said nonchalantly to a bewildered petite primary asset. 

Reese walked over to the male side of the volleyball court and the game started. The ball had only been in play for a few minutes when a loud voice boomed over the game from the sidelines. 

“Excuse me! Sammy and Lionel! It’s time for your sessSHIT!!” shouted an angry Joan from the sidelines, who grabbed her nose and screamed, the volleyball had hit her in the face. 

“Sorry, Joan. Didn’t see you standing there,” Root offered up in her fakest insincere apology, payback for interrupting her thank you massage. 

*****

Fusco and Shaw were on the same couch that Root and Reese had occupied an hour earlier. Dr. Tinswell was seated across from them with her notepad in hand, ready for the session; a serious, pensive look on her face. 

“Lionel, you start first,” Dr. Tinswell instructed to the fake married couple, she clicked her pen to start writing notes. 

The detective let out a deep breath, thought for a moment then smiled, “I’m going to smash your face in, shoot you in the kneecaps if you talk to me again or look at me,” Fusco smirked to Shaw who just rolled her eyes. 

Dr. Tinswell looked between the fake married couple in front of her with a shocked expression on her face. “Uh, Lionel. Is that how your wife speaks to you all the time?”

Shaw glared at Fusco. 

“I’m kidding, that’s just when she’s being playful or frisky. It’s like our foreplay,” Shaw seethed at Fusco. The detective reached and squeezed the petite asset’s knee, which almost involuntary jerked back to smack him in the face. “Let think of some more…” Fusco thought for a moment, then got a scowl on his face, “Cows should fear me. I eat at least three cows a day. Same for terrorists. And scumbags. I love steak, and I really love cereal even though I pretend to hate cereal,” the detective almost chuckled to himself. Shaw caught her fake married husband’s reference to Root; she was definitely smacking him later. 

“Sammy, why do you pretend to hate cereal?” Dr. Tinswell asked Shaw very seriously, her notepad posed and ready to take notes. “Are you lactose intolerant?”

“It’s my turn right?” Shaw ignored the doctor’s question to her, she took a deep breath then lit it rip, “Shorty, Grumpy, Sneezy, Captain Crunch, Princess, Four Eyes, Teletubbies, Stud Muffin, Urban Legend, Super Powered Nutball, Looney Cakes, Mr. Peabody …do you know how much I help you all the time. I get no respect. No respect.” The petite firecracker leaned back on the couch and outstretched her arms. “And I wear too many stained clothes.”

“You make me sound like Rodney Dangerfield with Tourette’s for nicknames,” shot back a very ruffled Fusco to Shaw. 

“Lionel…you almost made your wife sound like a violent sociopath,” observed Dr. Tinswell. 

Shaw and Fusco eyed each other. 

“Sam, do you feel, that your husband uses too many nicknames and that he tells you too often that you don’t appreciate him?”

“I don’t appreciate him,” Shaw snorted, then noticed the alarming look Dr. Tinswell had on her face and the grimace that Fusco wore on his, “I mean I do…appreciate him…we all do…Lionel. But don’t be such a baby all the time in having to hear it.”

“Sammy, people do need to hear certain things every once in awhile,” Dr. Tinswell looked between Shaw and Fusco as she wrote down some notes, some of the highlighted words and phrases were ‘Impotent? Guns? Diabetes? Closet Vegetarian?’; her brow furrowed as she looked between the fake married couple.


	12. 27 Minutes In A Lava Tube

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much reading and the lovely comments! Y’all are the sweetest! Not sure about this chapter, but posted it anyway. Big shoutout (shootout) to T_Ninja for being a test audience and massive thanks for the support and suggestions!

After their tortuous role playing session finally ended, Fusco and Shaw made it back down to the beach where Root was sharing a lounge chair with Gina chatting, while Reese and Craig were throwing a football back and fourth. 

Root caught sight of her favorite primary asset and fake husband approaching their area and didn’t even stop the huge smile that spread across her face. “Hey, Sammy, how was your session?” The hacker was quite excited that her little firecracker came back to the beach, no doubt still in her black bikini under her shorts and t-shirt. She was even glad that Fusco came back; she bet the detective hadn’t gotten many vacations in his overworked lifetime. 

“Who won the game?” Shaw asked as she sat in the lounge chair next to Root and Gina. She noticed Root while still wearing her red bikini choose not to take off her t-shirt and shorts while talking to their possible perpetrator. 

“Craig and I were no match for this killer Midwest couple,” Gina said as she toasted Root with her fruity cocktail. “Well, I guess this means it’s our turn for the good doctor.” Gina got up from the chair motioned to her husband and they headed back up to the main resort building for their role-playing session with Dr. Tinswell. 

As soon as the Roths were out of sight, Zoe and Harold walked up the beach with Bear on a leash toward the rest of the team. Bear immediately pulled hard on the leash to get where Shaw and Root were sitting, until Finch gave him the stay command in Dutch. 

“Finch, you did say this was a working vacation. Let Bear have some fun,” Root smiled while watching her favorite primary canine asset. Finch then reluctantly took the leash off Bear who trotted up to Root and licked her face. 

Shaw looked annoyed that Bear went to Root first. And she thought, since when was Bear just giving out kisses to the hacker. Shaw jumped off her lounge chair, took off her top and shorts and grabbed the football from Reese, “C’mon Bear!” The petite firecracker teased Bear with the football and then ran towards the ocean. Bear sprinted after Shaw with gusto; he indeed looked like a happy puppy. 

Root sprang up from her seat, ditched her shirt and shorts and ran after them towards the water with a huge smile plastered across her face. The rest of the team just watched as the trio galloped further down the beach. 

“Well, I was going to update everyone on what Ms. Morgan and I found out. Plus, see if the Roths revealed anything but I guess that can wait until after Bear frolics in the Pacific Ocean,” Finch said with a agitated look on his face. 

“Relax Finch, grab a chair. As Shaw said, you do look kind of pasty,” Reese smirked, he wanted to take Zoe’s hand and walk down the beach; then realized he had his fake wife Root. However, his fake wife at the moment was chasing after another woman on the beach and getting close to catching her. He couldn’t help a warm smile while watching the two women, he glanced over to Zoe who was watching him and she winked at him. 

“We should order a fruit plate,” said Fusco as he laid down in one of the lounge chairs and closed his eyes, sighing a sigh of happiness from the sun glowing on his face. 

Bear was beyond excited to be running on the beach and chasing after Shaw with the football. The Dutch stallion canine sometimes got confused with Root running behind them and would jump back and play with her which made the hacker shriek with giggles. Shaw ran out into the water, she stayed shallow so Bear could chase after her, jumping through the small waves. 

“Oh, Bear. He’s getting filthy,” Finch said while watching his human teammates cavort along the beach with their canine teammate. “If Ms. Shaw wasn’t undercover, Bear would be residing in her quarters tonight. She can clean all the sand from his fur.”

The trio continued to run further down the beach, Shaw still outpacing Bear and Root despite the hacker’s long leg advantage. The petite primary asset kept glancing back and giving them both a mischievous look. 

“Bear, go long!” Shaw yelled as she threw the football just as Root caught up and tackled her, toppling both of them completely into the ocean. 

Bear did indeed catch the football, and then the dog ran towards the two women in the ocean, bouncing as he jumped in and out of the water. 

When Root and Shaw popped their heads out of the water, both Bear and the hacker jumped up on the petite primary asset. Shaw grabbed the football from Bear and threw it on the land, the excited dog chased after the ball. The petite primary asset roughly grabbed the hacker’s wandering hands and pushed her further into the water. The hacker stared intensely at her favorite primary asset, one of her long legs snaked out to tangle around one of the shorter woman’s legs. 

“Ha, my boy caught it. Touchdown,” Shaw splashed water towards Root.

“Here’s my kind of touchdown,” Root said as her arm reached out and ran her fingers up and down Shaw’s torso. Being in the ocean with Shaw in her black bikini, the sun glistening off her toned skin, dark wild disheveled hair dripping water all over her face made the hacker momentarily delirious, she leaned over and kissed the petite primary asset. Shaw also battling very similar hormonal overload problems with the hacker in a red bikini driving her libido over the highest cliff didn’t hesitate and reciprocated the kiss back fiercely until one tiny part of her brain sparked on. She broke off the kiss by lunging back down under the water. Water splashed up in the hacker’s face and she couldn’t help but smirk. Root looked back down the beach just to make sure nobody saw them; which thankfully their teammates were preoccupied with a waiter. 

When Shaw came back for air, Root stared at her, “Root…our uh…fake husbands are right there.” Shaw nodded to the beach further down, even though she wanted Root to continue touching her and especially wanted the hacker’s tongue back in her mouth; even though she would never admit even in extreme torture, under oath or another Tinswell therapy session. As long as they had this no fuss agreement, she might as well get as much out of it as possible. 

“And unless they have x-ray vision underwater there’s nothing to see, plus we are further down the beach,” Root said as one of her hands went running down along Shaw’s thigh. 

Shaw grabbed Root’s wrist but didn’t move it from her thigh, if anything she moved it up higher, “Didn’t you say we’re on Her candid camera show all the time now, even here at the beach?”

Root paddled her arms in the water to make it look like she was standing while her legs wrapped around Shaw’s waist and squeezed. She got a smug look on her face when her favorite primary asset let out a small moan from the contact. Bear sunbathed on the beach watching the waves and the two women fight off their carnal urges long enough to fully stand up and separate from each other reluctantly. They both walked out of the ocean, Root openly and wantonly lusting after Shaw. The hacker thought she could binge watch Shaw all day, every day walking down a beach in a black bikini, preferably in slow motion. She was glad they had run so far down the beach, which meant she got to watch her favorite scantily primary asset saunter down the beach for a longer period of time. She wanted to catalog every glorious minute, she wanted this footage on her hard drive with multiple back-ups. 

Shaw kept her eyes on Bear, watching her canine teammate bouncing in and out the waves as they all three shuffled along in the shallow part of the ocean. The petite primary asset did steal glances at the hacker in her damn red bikini that accentuated just about every damn body part, especially her legs. Shaw didn’t want to admit her eyes kept betraying her and focusing on Root’s calves, whenever the waves receded and she could see them. Had the hacker been working out? How did the hacker have such drool worthy calves Shaw thought. 

When they reached the area where Reese and Fusco were hanging out they found that Finch and Zoe were gone. The two male teammates were sitting in the lounge chairs sharing a fruit platter. 

“Finch said he did find something we need to check out,” Reese said while scanning the beach for any dangerous activity and not wanting to really make eye or body contact with his two scantly clad female teammates. 

Fusco leaned over and grabbed the fruit platter to put in his lap as he saw his fake wife approaching; Shaw reached over and grabbed a handful of fruit. 

“And?” Asked Shaw in between bites of fruit. 

“Said he would be right back,” Reese bent down and reattached Bear to his leash. 

“Honey, I’m going to shower and change,” Root reached out patted John’s arm, which caught the attention of Shaw, who had an unconscious slight scowl on her face. 

“Yeah, me too,” Shaw tried to say as nonchalantly as possible while she punched Fusco in the arm then she discreetly followed the hacker along the beach towards the resort. 

Shaw saw a supply closet full of towels and other items for the resort hotel staff with the door ajar so she grabbed Root’s arm and swung her inside shutting the door behind them. Before Root even knew what was happening, the petite firecracker had somehow managed to untie her bikini top and planted several hungry kisses along the base of neck, going lower and lower on chest. The hacker didn’t even have time to catch her breath before the petite primary asset’s lips found her nipple and started sucking on it. Root grabbed onto Shaw’s hair tightly and tangled her fingers through the tresses while pushing the petite primary asset’s face harder to her body. Since they were both in their bikinis, dripping wet from the ocean with patches of sand in certain areas the sensations of their bodies rubbing against each other caused both of them to moan out when Root slide her thigh in between Shaw’s legs. Shaw slipped her hand underneath Root’s bikini bottom to grab the hacker’s ass roughly and dig in her short fingernails. 

They heard the door handle jiggle to open, then the sound of keys being inserted into the lock. By the time the door was finally opened the hotel resort staff person only saw one woman helping another woman with her bikini top strap. 

Root looked over to the hotel resort employee and smiled warmly, “I had a bikini wardrobe malfunction, and she was just helping me to avoid a nip slip in front of everyone.” Shaw rolled her eyes as they exited the supply closet. Root smirked; she had no idea why Sameen had done that, except that maybe her favorite primary asset was just about ready to sexually combust as she was if they didn’t have any one on one time very soon. 

As soon as they were walking back up the path to the resort Shaw spat out, “Let’s go to your room…right now,” as she adjusted her bikini bottom and a fire in her eyes staring at Root while also running her eyes up and down the hacker’s barely clothed body. They walked quickly through the lobby, without making eye contact with anyone and praying not to run into obstacles, which was for naught since Finch called out to them as they reached the elevators. They both sighed heavily. 

“Ms. Shaw, Ms. Groves…I just got some coordinates that need to be checked out. I’m not sure where or what the coordinates mean but the Machine is calculates it could be something related to the Roth’s plan which I think still somehow leads to Samaritan,” Finch eyed both of his teammates who seemed somewhat uncomfortable and fidgety. 

“Do we need to check it out right now,” Shaw couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth, was she actually shirking off something dangerous and work related because she needed to be inside of one certain tall bikini clad hacker so badly at the moment. Finch looked aghast at the petite primary asset. “I just meant, I wanted to take a shower to get off all the sand off,” Shaw hoped that was convincing, although one glance to Root and her lascivious eyes and it was probably pretty transparent why she wanted to hold off on work. 

“Ms. Shaw, there’s a shower on the beach. Not to mention, you’re not the only covered in sand, so is Bear,” Finch said with an annoyed look to Shaw. 

“Maybe John and Fusco could take a break from their fruit platter?” said Root in a hopeful voice while slightly nudging Shaw with her leg. 

“Mr. Reese and Mr. Fusco are checking another lead as soon as they finish their fruit platter. Please, do hurry and report back what you find,” Finch walked off to find the canine teammate who was desperately in need of a bath. 

They both headed back to the beach area begrudgingly and the shower stalls located close to the pool area for convenience with slightly grumpy faces.

“Don’t join me in the shower,” Shaw gently pushed Root away with her hand on her chest. “You heard the man, we’ve got coordinates to check out.” 

Root sighed as she headed to one of the other shower stalls. Finch was not her favorite person at the moment. 

*****

When Shaw came out of the shower stall, she couldn’t find Root. She sighed; she had just taken the coldest shower of her life in hopes of squashing down her hormones from ripping off the hacker’s bikini top. The petite primary asset didn’t want to admit that she really did want the hacker to join her in the shower, even if it was slightly public. Her body was a very short fuse at the moment, and it still surprised her that the hacker was the match. She could still feel the sting of Root’s kisses and the heat of her hands roaming all over her body, especially her thigh in between her legs. 

She was suddenly shaken from her thoughts when Root trotted up on a horse in the distance. Where in the hell did she get a horse? And why does she look so stunning on a horse? The hacker put her clothes back on over that damn red bikini and her damp hair made her look even more charming while perched on top of a freakin horse. Root looked like she could be on the cover of a cheesy romance novel, NOT that Shaw knew what any of those looked like besides seeing them on magazine racks at grocery stores. 

Shaw looked up to Root who looked down at her with dazzle in her eyes, “Where did you get a horse? And why?” asked a slightly grumpy, confused petite firecracker. 

“The coordinates are a bit far out. We can get back faster…to shower properly,” there was definite innuendo in the hacker’s voice, “I bet Dr. Tinswell has horseback therapy next. Can you just imagine you and Fusco, riding along together bareback?” said Root with an evil twinkle in her eye. 

“I will definitely be a widow before that happens,” Shaw continued to stare up at Root who looked too graceful, elegant and just plain hot up on the horse. “Is there another horse? I wanna drive,” Shaw didn’t really want to be pressed up against the hacker if they had work to do, her thinking was never that clear with Root around and it was even muddier and cloudier now with Root on a horse. 

“You can drive mine,” Root said with about as much innocence as a super villain would say luring prey to a trap. 

Shaw shook her head. Root outstretched an arm to help Shaw hop on the horse but the petite primary asset ignored the helping hand. She wasn’t quite as graceful as the hacker and she didn’t have the long height advantage either. However, she managed to swing herself somewhat swiftly onto the horse and seated herself in front of the hacker on the saddle. Root immediately took the opportunity to place her hands on Shaw’s thighs, and started rubbing circles on the inner side. 

“Root…place your hands somewhere else,” Shaw said with the effects of her cold shower just vaporized by the hacker’s one action. Root then moved her hands to hold onto the saddle begrudgingly. They were after all still on the resort grounds so she knew she had to tone it down a little in case that pesky Joan materialized out of thin air, which was possible as the hacker suspected she might actually be a witch. 

After awhile it was obvious that Shaw wasn’t exactly the best equestrian or the horse didn’t seem to like her very much. She didn’t necessary want to let Root take over the reins, but she relented which meant the hacker now had the full excuse of wrapping her arms around her waist and setting her chin on the petite firecracker’s shoulder. Once they lost sight of the resort, the hacker took advantage of the distance. Root managed to steer the horse and plant open mouth kisses up and down Shaw’s neck, along with some heavy sucking. Much like all the marks the petite primary asset left littered all over the hacker’s neck during her jellyfish sex crazed incident, Root was doing exactly the same to Shaw. Shaw put one hand on the saddle horn and grabbed onto Root’s thigh with the other, digging her nails in which spurred the hacker onto stronger sucking. She was fairly impressed that Root could administer all this horny physical action while still commanding the horse very deftly along the beach and a small patch of the jungle. 

“Root…”

“Yeah, sweetie?” Root asked quickly as to continue her physical kissing attack on her favorite primary asset’s neck, since Shaw agreed to their arrangement she wasn’t going to let any moment they were alone go to waste. 

“Uh…we are undercover, what if somebody sees you going all Lestat on my neck while we’re on this horse. God forbid Joan trots by, although I will have to shoot her then so that’s a pleasing thought,” Shaw said with a dazed look on her face. 

“Nobody comes this far down the beach,” Root managed to mumble out in between sucking and kissing. 

“Famous last words from a horror movie,” Shaw rolled her eyes, although the action had more to do with a hard bite to the neck not because of the annoying words of the hacker. 

They finally reached the coordinates Finch had given them. Once again, Root noticed the Machine was pretty quiet just alerting her that they had reached the correct coordinates. Shaw didn’t want to admit she was a little light headed and dazed from all of Root’s neck sucking on her pulse point. The petite primary asset jumped off the horse a little wobbly, she discreetly held onto the saddle for balance. Then Root slide off too gracefully, except her shirt caught on the saddle and rode up revealing her torso which Shaw unconsciously reached and grabbed because she thought the hacker needed help dismounting; not because she needed to touch her. 

They both looked around for something suspicious, since they were further inland they were mostly surrounded by jungle type forest. Then Root got that certain far off look in her eyes. 

“This way,” Root said while leading Shaw to the side of either a mountain or volcano. The hacker pulled out a small flashlight from her shorts; she ran her hands along the wall until she found an opening. Both of the women looked to each other slightly surprised. “She says there’s something in there we should see, she’s not quite sure what is though.” Root pointed the flashlight down the long cave like tunnel. 

“Great,” Shaw pulled out her gun from her shorts. She wasn’t really a fan of wearing shorts on missions, specifically for gun related reasons. 

Root grabbed Shaw’s hand and headed into the cave like tunnel with the small flashlight beam leading their way. 

“What is this? Is this a cave near one of the volcanoes?” asked Shaw as she looked around the tunnel as they went deeper and further into the darkness. And hoped they weren’t actually in a volcano. 

“Do you want to know that we’re inside a volcano?” asked Root grinning at Shaw even though she knew in the darkness she couldn’t really see her face. 

“No, not really,” just what Shaw didn’t want to hear. 

“We’re inside a sleeping giant much like Samaritan, try not to wake it up,” Root kept timing it so her and Shaw kept brushing up against each other as they crept further down the cave like tunnel. 

“Is this…uh, an active volcano?” asked Shaw trying to sound nonplussed. 

“It’s a lava tube. Volcanoes created all the Hawaiian Islands once upon a time; tubes are newer though. Lave used to flow through them, draining lava from an eruption; then they cooled and left cave like tunnels. Some are active and some are extinct, let’s hope this one is dormant,” Root smiled and brought up the flashlight under her face to raise her eyebrows to Shaw. 

“And if it decides to erupt?” Shaw yanked the flashlight out of Root’s hand, “How much further are we supposed to walk, what are we even looking for?” 

“Look at these lavacicles. Think of all the shifting magma, its kind of turn on,” Root paused to awe at the nature scenery around her, with another small flashlight she had someplace hidden. The hacker admired the walls then turned her attention to the best scenery in the world, her favorite primary asset. 

“You’re such a nerd. Next, you’re going to tell me Star Trek fan fic does it for you,” Shaw had stopped as well to look around at the wondrous cooling lava around her. 

“No, I’m more a Xena and Gabby girl,” Root could already feel Shaw rolling her eyes at this comment. “This volcano could erupt at any time, kind of exciting. Could be right now.”

“Let’s hope it stays calm,” Shaw on purpose aimed the flashlight in Root’s face before pointing the light back down towards the long tunnel before them. 

“True, we can’t outrun lava. We would just become part of this lava tub forever, which is kind of romantic,” Root had a goofy look on her face as she bit her lower lip. 

“Sure, in a Romeo & Juliet stupid kind of dead way,” Shaw immediately started cursing herself, damnit. She thought how that was completely the wrong kind of thing to say to the right kind of crazy Root. 

“That’s quite the comparison Sameen,” Root couldn’t believe her ears; well she couldn’t really believe her whole situation with Shaw at the moment. Then suddenly, she heard the Machine in her ear. 

“No, I meant the Descent, the cave movie where they all died with disgusting crap all over them,” Shaw tried to explain her wrong reply, but she could tell from Root’s serious far off look she was listening to the Machine instead; obviously getting some vital information hopefully. 

“She just told me we have 27 minutes,” Root moved closer to Shaw with a blaze in her eyes. Then the hacker took off her t-shirt and dropped it nearby; she then reached to remove the petite primary asset’s t-shirt. 

“27 minutes until what?” Shaw watched Root with those damn big eyes, her complete undoing for some insane reason. She thought to herself that 27 minutes wasn’t near enough time for what she wanted to do to the hacker. Yet, she also knew all the foreplay Root had pressed upon her over the last few days and very begrudgingly what she had done to the hacker during her jellyfish infused sex craze was enough foreplay to last at least five nights of debauchery. Shaw was about to implode if she didn’t have the hacker in some quick capacity. And this dizzy feeling in her head when the hacker was around lately was definitely impeding her judgment regarding anything work related. 

“She didn’t say,” Root was successful in getting Shaw’s t-shirt off, leaving them both in their bikini tops, the hacker then grabbed the petite primary asset’s waist and pulled their bodies together so almost every inch of their exposed skin were touching somewhere. “We can do a lot in 27 minutes,” the hacker spat out before finding her petite firecracker’s pulse point once again on her neck and biting down hard. She also slid her hand down to cup Shaw’s ass, while her other hand went to one of the primary asset’s breasts, pushing the restricting bikini top out of the way. 

“You can’t be serious, we’re in what you said…a lava tube??” Shaw began pushing Root towards one of the pointy walls. Root only squirmed for a moment when her nearly bare back made contact with the prickly lava pillar. 

“No time like the present Sameen. Although, we’ll have to skip appetizers and move right to the main course,” Root gripped Shaw’s hips roughly and pulled them towards her, pressing the full length of their bodies together again. “Plus, you tried to have sex with me in a cave so…” 

“I did what?” Shaw didn’t know if she ever wanted to hear the full account of her twelve hours on a sex crazed doomsday jellyfish brain. Just from the few tidbits she had heard and the brief video she saw on Joan’s phone was embarrassing enough never to ask about it again. 

“Sorry, to have to tell you this Sam…this isn’t the first time you’ve been topless in a cave like tunnel,” the hacker leaned down and in one move removed the petite primary asset’s bikini top completely and aggressively latched her lips onto one of Shaw's breasts, alternating between the two. Shaw barely had time to brace herself from the delirious onslaught and the new information she had tried to seduce the hacker while topless in a cave. The petite primary asset tried her hardest to hold down several moans from escaping from her throat. 

Then Root stopped quickly, looked up and stared intensely into Shaw’s eyes, “Our first kiss was in a cave.”

“You’re killing the mood,” said Shaw, once again she did not need to know any more details about those twelve hours, and specifically if she had been topless with Root and kissing her in a cave. Which of course she desperately wanted to do now in this similar setting and this time remember those actions. And consequences. 

Shaw grabbed Root’s head with both hands and pulled her up, she stared into those big damn heart eyes that made her feel like she was swept away by a hurricane of desire. Or first kiss lust or whatever. She didn’t know why her chest felt so tight or heart was pounding faster and harder than it usually did during sex with someone. The hacker placed open-mouthed long kisses all along Shaw’s neck and chest moving back up to her mouth. As soon as Root took Shaw’s top lip into her mouth, the petite primary asset gave a tug to the hacker’s hair and pulled her into a kiss with about as much force like she was drop kicking someone. And then when Root took her tongue hostage in long, deep sucks and strokes, Shaw’s hand glided quickly underneath the hacker’s shorts and bikini bottom. The clock was ticking away fast, the petite primary asset felt like she needed to be inside the hacker almost as much as she needed life essentials at the moment. In this moment, she would give up the best porterhouse steak from St. Louis to stay as long as she could wrapped up in Root, to continue kissing her and hearing all the fevered sounds broadcasting from the hacker’s body. As soon as Shaw’s hand landed in the right spot, Root gasped and moaned; she kept masping until two fingers slid inside and then she barely got out, ‘Sameen’ several times. The petite primary asset actually heard herself letting out a few moans just from being inside the hacker and feeling her move against her, to feel her muscles clench around her fingers. 

Then suddenly she let out, “Damnit Root,” as Shaw felt Root slip her hand down her bikini bottom and before she knew it the hacker’s fingers were very swiftly and very close to turning her into a pouring hot lava mess as they pumped inside of her. 

“Well, just in case lava comes out and melts us right now,” Root said as she pushed deeper into Shaw causing the petite primary asset to tilt her head back and close her eyes tightly fighting against an orgasm that was approaching way too fast and hard. 

“Uhhhh….damnit Root,” Shaw rolled her eyes and despite her hardest to control them, she kept letting out low guttural moans because of what the hacker’s fingers were doing to her. She recovered somewhat and managed to keep up her rhythm inside Root despite having no blood flowing anywhere except to her specific lower region area. They both pushed their foreheads together as they pushed each other further and further. Their mouths almost touching, breathing in each other as they panted against each other. 

Root opened her mouth and through haggard breathing, “I can’t die having never been inside of you.”

“Is that one of your bucket list things?” Shaw said in between moans that were getting louder and louder as she was getting closer and closer to her own eruption. 

“Absolutely,” Root managed out in between her moans, “Oh Sameen…you’re melting me,” the hacker kissed her primary asset hard then broke off because her own lava was making her push harder and the air in her lungs felt on fire as well. 

“Oh gawwwwd Root….you’re such a dork,” Shaw could feel Root’s walls tightening around her fingers, which spurred her on even more and she felt herself clench around Root’s fingers.

Root bit down hard on Shaw’s neck when she came, so the petite primary asset returned the action to the hacker’s neck. Both women leaving their marks behind on each other, and probably in hopes of saving their spot whether they wanted to admit it or not. As soon as they felt the wave of lightheadedness start to fade and breathing slow down a bit, they started kissing again. Shaw didn’t remember ever kissing someone as much as she was kissing Root, then again no one had ever tasted as good as the hacker. And she desperately needed to taste all the flavors of Root. 

Shaw realized through her fog that her fingers were still inside Root while the hacker’s hands were busy trailing up and down her body. She went to remove her fingers and Root stopped her, “Wait…”

“My fingers are going to pucker,” Shaw said in a teasing tone. The petite primary asset would never admit that she kind of did like that she was still inside of Root, almost laying claim to the hacker. 

Suddenly, they both heard a soft buzzing type of sound coming from deeper into the lava tube. 

“What in the hell is that?” asked Shaw, who withdrew from Root and grabbed her t-shirt to pull over her head; no time for the bikini top. Root followed her action. They both raised their guns from where the noise was coming from darkness of the lava tube, the noise got louder and closer. 

Root pointed the flashlight down the lava tube then suddenly; shadows were forming and coming at them fast. The two women looked puzzled because the shadows appeared to be flying towards them. Before they knew it, they both ducked their heads and flying drones were headed straight for them. Three drones flew right past them over their heads and kept flying to the entrance to the lava tube. 

“Drones? Why are there drones down here?” Shaw started chasing after the drones; Root followed her down the lava tube. 

As soon as they reached the entrance and the drones took off in the direction of the resort, Shaw aimed and shot at the drones. 

“Sameen, what are you doing?”

“Those are the sleekest drones I’ve ever seen, there’s no way those are for recreational use. And why three of them?” Shaw asked as she continued to aim and shoot at the drones. 

“So you’re going to try and shoot them all down?”

“No try, do.” Shaw precisely aimed and shot down all three stealth drones. Semi-loud crashes could be heard from the three drones falling from the sky and smashing into the ground. 

Suddenly, two more drones flew past them faster and Shaw wasn’t able to get a good shot at them. 

“More drones? What kind of evil lair lava tube are they coming from?” asked Root as Shaw took off towards the horse tied up to a nearby tree. 

They both ran to the horse. Root quickly slung her long leg over and perched in the saddle, she reached out her arm and Shaw reluctantly grabbed onto to the hacker’s hand to swing up on the horse because it was faster with help. They galloped after the drones on the horse. Shaw leaned up, holding onto Root’s shoulder for balance as she aimed for the drones. She shot and one drone fell into the ocean. Then the last drone, changed trajectory and started flying straight at Root and Shaw on the horse. 

“This can’t be good,” said Shaw as the drone speeded towards them. The petite primary asset continued shooting at the drone. 

Then the drone armed itself and started shooting at them. 

“See recreational drones my ass,” Shaw quipped as she put her elbow on Root’s shoulder, aimed and fired while the hacker continued galloping the horse down the beach. The drone got off a few shots before Shaw blasted it down. 

Root stopped the horse once the drone crashed on the sandy beach. “We need to take one or two back with us so Harry can take a look at them,” Root said as she swung off the horse and hit the soft sand. Shaw jumped down looked over at the drone then back to Root and one thing caught her eye and she let out a gasp. 

“You got shot?” asked a surprised Shaw, who did not like that her breathing quickened and heart rate raced from seeing the red color on Root’s shirt. 

“Sweetie, it’s my shoulder…what did you expect. It’s like magnetic to bullets,” Root did her best non-wink to Shaw.


	13. Walking On Hot Coals Therapy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, I can’t thank everyone enough for all the comments, feedback and kudos! Y'all are so sweet! And because of that, here’s more fluff. Thank you so much to Classic1 for the wonderful suggestions, hopefully I’m doing some of them justice. And thank you sooooo much to T_Ninja for support and ideas, at this point I think 76% of these ideas are hers. Thank you!! :-) ps. There's a line totally stolen from The Office.

Shaw looked at Root; she saw the blood on her shirt and her chest tightened in an uncomfortable way. And she felt super angry all of sudden, she felt like a volcano of anger was erupting inside her chest. 

“Here, just sit down. I’ll be right back,” Shaw said gruffly as she motioned for Root to sit in the sand under a tree. She then grabbed the reins of the horse and tied it up to a nearby tree. “Why must you always get shot? You’re the biggest klutz.”

“I had to move two inches to the left so…” Root realized her big mistake, her slip. Shaw might get even be more angry if she finished her sentence that she started without thinking, she blamed the actions inside the lava tube for causing fuzzy thoughts to spill out of her mouth instead of staying thoughts. She was so desperate for her favorite primary asset not to get hurt that when The Machine said in her ear that her movement would prevent a more serious injury to Shaw she didn’t even hesitate before she moved. 

“What?” Shaw practically foamed at the mouth; she waited for Root to answer. “Why did you have to move two inches to the left…Root?” Anger was blaring off Shaw’s face and body. 

The hacker weighed her options on which would less anger or scare off the petite firecracker. “Or the horse would get shot.” 

“The horse?”

“You’ve got a thing for dogs and apparently now sharks, I like horses,” Root hoped she sold this lie. 

“Wait here,” Shaw growled as she stomped off towards the lava tube. 

Root sat on the warm sand; the wind blew in her hair. She meant to mention to Shaw before she walked off that the shot was just a graze on her shoulder, and possibly not even something that needed stitches. However, she was overtaken with the look on Shaw’s face. What just happened between them in the lava tube knocked her out more than the bullet graze. Root felt completely unsteady after finally getting a home run with her favorite petite primary asset; albeit a short one. She knew this was a temporary agreement and that made her chest ache way more than her shoulder right now. Being with Shaw like that was something she would always crave like water and air. 

Shaw came back with her both of their bikini tops in her hand. “Black or red?”

“Black of course,” Root smiled at Shaw as sat down next to her and lifted up the sleeve of the shirt to get a better look at the wound. Shaw wrapped around the black bikini top to cover up the mild wound, making sure it had enough pressure. 

Shaw looked at Root’s wound and was relieved it was a very shallow graze. Why didn’t she look before she ran off to the lava tube? Because anything involving Root made her brain sluggish, especially at this moment. Her chest felt less constructed now after seeing how minor the wound was, the lessening feeling in her chest was a minor relief from all the other things going on in her body from an adrenaline rush of shooting down the drones to what she and Root had been doing to each other just minutes before. 

Shaw’s hand betrayed her and ran up and down one of Root’s thigh, slowly in a comforting way. Root looked up and locked eyes with Shaw. The petite primary asset thought if this were any other time she would just sit here and rant and lecture the hacker, right now she didn’t have to talk; she had a free pass to do something else. She then leaned over and kissed Root slowly and tenderly. The kiss took the hacker by surprise because she thought her favorite primary asset was going to lecture her on getting shot once again. She did not expect kissing, and certainly not kissing like they were making out to a Sade album without a care in the world. Root pulled Shaw down on top of her and tangled her hands up in the petite primary asset’s wild dark hair. 

Suddenly, Root said in between kisses, “Harry?” Shaw pulled away from the hacker. Root tried to hold onto to her but the petite primary asset’s strength was no match for the hacker. 

Shaw couldn’t believe she let the kiss go on for so long and all she wanted was for it to continue. And all she wanted in the world right now was damn freakin privacy with the hacker for more than 27 measly minutes. Shaw sat beside Root on the sand, pissed at herself for kissing the hacker instead of lecturing her. She was still so angry with her, then when Root looked at her with those eyes, all she could think about was kissing her, being inside her again. She shook her head as if hoping the shaking would discard the thoughts. 

Root looked at Shaw and made a silent mouthing of ‘Harry’ while listening, “No, nothing’s wrong…I was out of breath from...drones shooting at us, then chasing us along the scenic beach on a horse.” The petite primary asset rolled her eyes at the idiotic description. “Shaw managed to shoot them all down. Got it, we will snag one. On my way,” Root’s face signaled the call had ended and now she directed her eyes at Shaw, which immediately softened and became somewhat glossy at the petite primary asset. “The boys are on their way to pick you and a drone up, let’s take the mean one.” The hacker pointed to the one that had shot at them. 

Root stood and made her way over to the horse, she untied it from the tree. And in one graceful swoop without a moment’s hesitation or her slight wound injury, she was on top of the horse. 

“Wait, Root. Where are you going?”

“She’s telling me that I’m needed back at the resort for something she can’t hack remotely for some reason.” Root looked down at Shaw with a weak smile, “The boys will be here in four minutes…see you later?”

Shaw shook her head at the hacker; she felt her anger raging up. “Fine. Whatever,” she then stomped off to the drone to pull it under some trees for better hiding until the guys showed up. 

Root felt a little awkward, Shaw seemed more angry than usual, however a different kind of angry than her usual flavor of anger. The hacker had no idea why Shaw had kissed her a few minutes ago; she hoped it wasn’t their last kiss. It wasn’t a kiss goodbye was it?

*****

When Shaw got to the hatch, she found Root and Harold hunched over two laptops so immersed they didn’t hear her approaching. Bear napped in his bed off in the corner, however once he saw the petite primary asset walk in, he jumped up and trotted over to her. She smirked, Bear was indeed in need of a bath, probably the first time the dog had been really dirty; good job boy she thought to herself. 

Finch looked up, “Ms. Shaw, where…” before he could finish Fusco and Reese entered the main room both struggling to carry the heavy, bulky drone. 

“A little help here Maybelline?” Fusco grunted while trudging slowly to the table with the large metal machinery. 

“Hey, I shot it down, at least you can do is carry it,” Shaw snapped back with a little more fierce she intended. Her ride back to the hatch had given her some to think and she had only gotten more pissed at the hacker. 

Finch walked over to inspect the drone while Fusco and Reese also picked at the computer-flying gadget. 

Shaw walked over to where Root was sitting and even though she still felt an intense rage at the hacker, she had to force herself not to reach out for her, she didn’t know if she was going to smack her or French kiss her. She comprised for standing behind her and leaning over her shoulder to see what the hacker was working on. As soon as she leaned over she knew she had an affect on Root, who stilled and leaned back slightly, searching for contact of any kind. 

“What are you working on?” Shaw purposefully leaned in further and said it with a low hum inches away from Root’s neck, she could feel the hacker shudder. 

Root shifted in her chair, tried to compose herself, “Well, the first thing I did was destroy some footage the drones captured with their surprise infrared cameras.” The hacker turned her head a little and licked her lips; she couldn’t concentrate anymore with Shaw this close. 

“Uh, what kind of footage?” Shaw lowered her voice. 

“Two people engaging amorously in a lava tube,” Shaw knew that was going to be the answer, she slightly cringed only thinking that Finch saw it. “Harry didn’t see it…only Joan did,” Root joked at Shaw. “I stopped by the resort and handled it before the footage was fully uploaded to their servers. Turns out those drones were taking aerial shots of the resort for one of their social media features. However, one of them was hacked.” Their faces were very close together and even though Root could feel Shaw’s anger coming off her body, she also felt the petite firecracker was about to kiss her again if the boys weren’t there. Shaw had that same look of confusion and boiling anger from the beach. They were broken from their haze with Reese walking over to them. Shaw saw the tiny smile tug at his lips, that knowing smile of Reese, as she stood up and distanced herself from Root. 

“And someone added the bonus feature of firing power, but why?” Reese said while patting Bear on the head as the dog came up and nudged his hand. 

The rest of the team joined them, Shaw noticed how close she still was to Root and backed up a little more. Why couldn’t she just stay away from the annoying hacker?

“So one of the drones was hacked, but for what purpose?” asked Finch looking back and fourth between his teammates. 

“I’m going to take a shower.” The petite primary asset started to walk away towards one of the many bathrooms. She couldn’t focus on anything right now except having Root literally under her skin again like they were very shortly before in the lava tube. She needed a cold shower stat. 

“Good idea Ms. Shaw, the four of you will need to be back at the resort for this evening’s luau in less than an hour,” Finch said while sitting back down in front of a laptop while his four teammates looked at him with angry, scrunched up faces. 

“Another luau? Are you kidding me?” Shaw exclaimed so loudly, “Seriously, Finch.”

“I agree Finch, these sessions seem counter productive now,” Reese crossed his arms against his chest. “Where’s Zoe?”

“Not if the Roths are involved,” Finch said with a piercing stare to his Mayhem Twins. “Ms. Shaw there will be a full course meal, I believe they are roasting an entire pig. And Ms. Morgan is out on a field trip researching different companies on the island that could have been responsible for the drones.” 

Shaw went off to the shower with a loud huff. The rest of the team began taking the drone a part piece by piece. Not long after Shaw departed for the shower, they all heard muffled yells coming from the bathroom. 

“What is she yelling?” asked Fusco. No one seemed concerned, they sounded like angry yells and not distress yells. 

“Sounds like shampoo,” Root said while trying to continue to focus on her task while not thinking about her favorite petite primary asset naked yelling for shampoo. She would much rather be shampooing Shaw’s hair, and her whole body than picking at code from a drone. “She probably just needs someone to take her shampoo.”

“Not it,” said Fusco and Reese at the same time. 

“She’s your wife,” Root smirked at him as she continued to type. 

“Fake wife thankfully, can you imagine being married to that full time?” Fusco said, then glanced at Root who had a daydream smile dance across her face. 

“Well, somebody better take her some, if she comes all the way out here, which she probably will…she’s going to be really…” before Reese could finish Root spoke while continuing to type on the laptop. 

“Wet…” All three men stared at Root who continued to type on the laptop pretending to be unaware of their stares. “Uh…I meant super angry.” Then they heard Shaw yelling something with combination of shampoo, shooting and knees. Root sighed and stood up. “Harry, where are all the toiletries located?”

“That must have been the only bathroom not fully stocked, hall closet to the right,” Finch said with a grateful tone. 

Root found some shampoo and entered the bathroom Shaw was showering in; there was steam billowing out. The hacker sauntered in and before she opened the shower door, “Don’t spray me in the face this time. I come bearing the gift of shampoo.”

“Conditioner too?” barked Shaw. 

“Of course,” Root opened the door and immediately began drooling while lustily staring at her favorite primary asset completely naked with water cascading down everywhere. The hacker took the moment to really stare hard unabashedly at her favorite petite primary asset. “None of the boys wanted to do this special delivery. Their loss, my immense gain.” 

Shaw grabbed Root’s shirt and pulled her in the shower. They both stood there for a minute, staring at each other, the water spraying behind them. Shaw looked down at Root’s lips, however a very welcomed lip onslaught didn’t happen, much to the hacker’s disappointment. Shaw held tightly onto the hacker’s shirt while intensely staring in her eyes, “Don’t you ever take a bullet for me again. Understand?” Shaw tugged harder on Root’s shirt. “I will shoot you myself.” 

“I’ll take any shot I can get with you,” Root remarked back without thinking of the consequences to her words or actions. 

Shaw tightened her hold, pushing it up closer to Root’s throat, in her meanest growl yet, “I will end you in the bad way if you do.” Shaw dug her nails into Root’s throat, “Understand?”

Root nodded, even though she hoped her eyes didn’t betray her. She could never let anything or anyone harm Shaw. The petite firecracker stared at her with wild confused eyes. Root slowly ran her hand up her Shaw’s arm and caressed it. 

“Get out unless you’ve got more than 27 minutes and you’ve cleared out the peanut gang from the hatch,” snarled Shaw, it was taking all her willpower not to start undressing the hacker.

“See you after the luau?” asked Root as she exited the shower stall but held the door open, still gawking at Shaw. 

“You better,” Shaw yanked the shower stall door shut. 

Root existed the bathroom, closed the door and leaned on it for second on the other side. So Sameen was furious for her diverting a bullet, yet she did say she would meet up later so that was encouraging. Although, it could be payback of some sorts, either way she got to spend more time with her favorite primary asset, alone. When she came back and took her chair and started typing on the laptop again, her male teammates couldn’t help notice her hair was slightly wet and her clothes were almost soaked. They all turned and made confused faces at each other. 

“So the delivery went well?” Fusco almost chuckled at the disheveled state of his female teammate. 

“No Lionel, she doesn’t like that brand of shampoo. She sprayed me with a hose,” Root didn’t look up at them, and held tight to a serious poker face; she did love messing with the guys. 

“Glasses, there’s a hose in your bathroom?” Fusco actually looked like he believed his nutty teammate.

*****

All the couples were instructed to wear the clothes delivered to their rooms, a somewhat traditional Hawaiian attire for the evening. The men were to wear something resembling a grass skirt while the women were given strapless sun dresses. Fusco and Reese were not happy, in fact they were extremely grumpy they had to wear grass skirts. Both men wore long shorts underneath the grass skirts. And neither men were happy about not wearing a shirt, for different reasons. 

Fusco was arranging his skirt when Shaw came out of the bathroom in her strapless sundress, her dark luxurious hair flowing past her shoulders and slightly darker skin from a tan; even the detective admitted his fake wife was a real breathtaking beauty. He smirked to himself; he couldn’t wait to see Coco Puffs reaction. He still didn’t really know if his fake wife was into reciprocating any of the innuendos Looney Tunes was putting out, even after the whole jellyfish thing. However, he did think he spotted something on his fake wife’s neck that wasn’t there earlier. So maybe instead of just giving out hickeys in her crazy jellyfish stage, maybe his fake wife now was receiving them from Nutella. Or maybe it was a bullet graze from the drones, hard to tell. 

Shaw took one look at Fusco in his grass skirt and shirtless and started cackling. “Whoa, Lionel Fusco in a grass skirt, never thought I would live to see the day,” Shaw snorted while looking up and down at her fake husband. 

“And you won’t if you mention this to anyone back at my precinct, Shorty,” Fusco huffed while repositioning his skirt. “How do you women wear these all the time?”

“I don’t,” Shaw walked over and helped Fusco position the skirt properly. “You know Fusco, you’re kind of pulling this off.” Shaw still cackled some more. “Oh man, I can’t wait to see Reese.”

“He better be wearing it or I’ll kneecap Mr. Kneecap,” Fusco said putting his arms across his chest. “Why can’t I wear a shirt? What if I get cold?” 

“C’mon on Papa Bear, let’s take a shirt for you just in case,” Shaw grabbed a shirt and motioned for Fusco to head to the door, when the detective passed by his fake wife she slapped his bare belly. “The sooner we get this over, the sooner we can go to sleep.” But really what Shaw meant was the sooner I can get Root alone naked and spank her ass for taking a bullet for me. 

*****

Shaw and Fusco walked out onto the beach where the luau was and all the couples were milling around, as they arrived the conch shell was heard several more times. They didn’t know how Reese and Root always managed to beat them. Over by the bar stood the tall couple looking poised in their forced outfits, Reese looking extremely uncomfortable shirtless and in a grass skirt, Root looking stunning as usual in her strapless sundress; her hair appearing more curly, probably due to the humidity. As soon as the hacker saw the petite primary asset, her face lit up like a Christmas tree. Shaw thought to herself, damnit Root; did the hacker have to have that same reaction every time she saw her? It had only been 45 minutes since they last saw each other, and here was the hacker drinking her in with her eyes like she hadn’t seen her in years and dying of thirst. Granted Shaw didn’t want to admit she was parched herself and needed a Root drink. The petite primary asset shifted, almost losing her balance and grabbed onto Fusco. The detective smiled to himself, Coco Puffs cleans up well too he thought and clearly it’s having affects on his fake wife. 

Root walked over to their teammates, while Reese waited for his drink at the bar. When Root got closer, Fusco couldn’t help but notice that his two female teammates seem to be sporting matching bite marks on their necks. It was easy to see since they were both wearing the strapless Hawaiian style dresses. So seeing Coco Puff’s neck, he was going with bite mark and not bullet graze on his fake wife’s neck. 

“Did the two of you getting matching neck tattoos?” Fusco looked back and fourth between his two female teammates and the bite marks did appear on very similar locations on their necks, “Or something attack you both at the same time, in the same spot?” 

“Did you not hear me earlier, we were attacked by drones,” Shaw growled at him as to not be heard by the other couples, the doctor and especially Joan. Thankfully, at that moment a server came around offering lei to put around everyone’s neck and the petite primary asset actually jumped at the chance. Shaw positioned the lei to cover up Root’s bite mark on her neck. She glared at the hacker until she did the same thing with the lei around her own neck. 

Fusco still amused, teased on. “So drones grazed you both in the exact same spot on each other’s corresponding necks? Are you sure they shot at you or did they suck on your necks?” Fusco couldn’t help an evil smile across his face; he really did love egging on his petite fake wife about her not so secretive thing now it seemed with their fellow female teammate.

“Drones are precise asshole,” Shaw walked over to the bar to join Reese. Fusco and Root smiled at each other. 

“They really are Lionel, you saw this right?” Root showed Fusco her graze on her shoulder. If Shaw wanted to keep playing the platonic co-workers charade, she would help if it meant she could strip the sundress off one petite primary asset after the luau. 

The luau progressed first with a massive dinner with the underground roasting of the pig and then as soon as everyone was finished but Shaw, Dr. Tinswell announced the activities would be starting. Shaw inwardly and outwardly groaned. 

“Instead of the Polynesian show we are going to continue our growth and work together on our journeys and relationships,” Tinswell waved her arms around and made sure to make eye contact with everyone except Shaw who was still laser focused on eating. Then Fusco poked her and she looked up and nodded to the doctor. 

“We are going to play pass the orange, we wish we could use a coconut or pineapple to honor the game while in Hawaii, however that would be painful,” said Tinswell while Joan walked over with a bowl of oranges. 

“No shit,” Shaw let slip out, Fusco elbowed her. “I’m going to kill Finch myself when we are freed from this therapy nonsense hell,” said Shaw while still shoveling food into her mouth, always the last one eating. Her fake husband pulled her plate away as she growled at him, then she realized they had to stand up and join the other couples. 

“First, we tie everyone’s hands behind their backs,” said Tinswell while Joan went around tying everyone’s hands behind their backs. 

“I already like this game,” smirked Root to Shaw, who in return rolled her eyes. 

When Joan came around to tie Shaw’s hands together she did it roughly and very tight. “Is that good Sammy?” asked Joan in a rather condescending tone. 

“It’s kind of loose, but it works,” snarked back Shaw to Joan. 

“We are not dividing into teams, this game is simply to explore how you work better with your partner than with anyone else,” said Tinswell while she watched all the couples. “You will start with your partner and end with your partner, pass the orange to everyone in the circle.” 

Shaw groaned, that meant she had to pass the orange to the older couple, the younger ones, the Roths, Reese, Fusco and Root; maybe she could feign food poisoning right now. Wait, that meant she had to pass with Fusco twice; although, that did mean she would get to see Fusco pass with John, which could be fun to watch. 

John started with the orange under his chin, Root leaned in and deftly grabbed it with her chin so precisely and swiftly she didn’t have to linger leaning on his body at all. Shaw and Fusco gave each other quick glances as if to say, ‘have they been practicing?’ 

Fusco was going to go next but then Shaw nudged him out of the way; not that she needed the physical contact with Root or anything immediately. When Root turned around and saw Shaw was next, her eyes lit up; she leaned to position herself against Shaw. The petite primary asset knew for a fact that Root was letting the orange slip on purpose before she even launched herself over. The orange slid down to Shaw’s cleavage almost immediately and the tall hacker plunged her face into her chest in the charade of retrieving the wayward orange; while also letting her tongue lick Shaw’s chest in the crevice between her breasts. Shaw almost let out a moan; instead she forced herself to clear her throat. Root withdrew her tongue, just in case watchdog Joan came over to them. Then Root discretely managed to let the orange slip further down, Shaw clenched her knees together and stopped the fruit from hitting the floor. 

“Do you really want our team to lose?” Shaw whispered to Root, she had lost track they weren’t actually competing against each other. 

“If it means I get to bury my face in your crotch, then yes,” Root whispered back to Shaw. 

“C’mon Sammy, pick up the pace or we’re losing,” cheered on Fusco, he knew exactly what Coco Puffs was doing and by the languid movements of his fake wife she was enjoying it or she would shut it down. “Oh, wait we aren’t playing teams, take your time,” said the detective in amusing tone. 

Joan made her way over to Root and Shaw, she rolled her eyes because she knew somehow these two fakers would end paired off at some point in this game. And she knew it was just for the sheer thrill of rubbing against each other like dogs in heat. She had to make Dr. Tinswell see the truth behind these cheaters. Even though admittedly, she would have helped Sam and John if they had wanted her assistance in that area. Especially Sam. Why someone like Sam would have chosen the wife of an auto parts dealer who wore hideous tracksuits was a complete mystery to the therapist’s assistant. Just as she was about to call out to Tinswell, Root spun around and launched herself onto Joan with the orange. 

“Oh gosh, sorry Joan. I thought you were Lionel,” the orange was slipping under Root’s chin so she was rubbing almost her whole body pressed up against Joan. “You don’t mind playing with me do you?” The hacker batted her eyes at Joan who started breathing heavy and appeared speechless to the flirty onslaught. 

Shaw couldn’t help roll her eyes, and her teeth grinded on their own seeing the hacker that up close and personal with the annoying therapist’s assistant. She did admire Root for taking the initiative because this action would shut Joan up for a bit, hopefully. 

Root continued to move up and down keeping the orange from falling. Joan looked like a deer caught in headlights, engaging and not pulling away from the alluring, extremely attractive couple participant, even though she had no business partaking in the couple activity. 

“Joan, are you showing by example?” asked Tinswell with accusatory tone in her voice. 

Tinswell’s assistant stopped her grinding onto Root; she froze in place. Joan didn’t want her interaction with Sam to end and yet she knew she had to drop the fruit. “Yes, Dr. Tinswell.” Joan slowly moved away from Root and the orange fell to the sand. The assistant looked completely flustered, red in the face and sweaty; she looked up to Root’s mischievous eyes then followed Tinswell to check on the other couples. 

Shaw walked over and picked up the orange, she jabbed her thumb into the center roughly and started peeling the skin off. “Was that necessary?”

“I think it will get her off our backs for a little while,” Root said while smoothing down her dress and staring at Shaw. 

“I thought she was going to come on your front,” Shaw deadpanned as she took a piece of orange and sucked into her mouth, slowly and exaggerated for Root’s torture. 

Before Root could get too lost watching her favorite primary asset suck and lick her way through a piece of fruit, she noticed that her fake husband and Fusco were doing the orange dance. Seeing her two male teammates try to pass the orange off to each other was just too amusing for words and wrong in so many ways. 

“Please, tell me She’s getting footage of this somehow,” Shaw leaned and whispered to Root. 

“Oh, she is. She just told me,” Root whispered back with glee in her eyes. 

All the couples barely had time to recuperate from the orange game when Dr. Tinswell was announcing the next activity on the agenda. 

“Now we are going to do the ceremonious walk of hot coals or I as like to call it, our love burns so brightly it enflames our soul,” once again Tinswell made her voice louder and waved her arms for dramatic effect. 

Both Root and Shaw’s eyes light up when they saw the hot coal walk they were being led towards. 

“Now this looks like fun,” Shaw couldn’t help the playful smile on her face. 

“I’m not doing that, I’ve got enough corns and calluses on my feet,” said Fusco walking next to fake wife. 

“You’re such a charmer,” Shaw snorted to her fake hubby, then she leaned into him and lowered her voice, “Look, coals are terrible at transferring heat, it’s like sticking your hand in an oven; it’s not going to burn you instantly, just keep moving. Don’t run though, just walk fast; running through it could actually hurt you,” Shaw tried for a reassuring tone; she then awkwardly squeezed Fusco’s shoulder. 

All the couples lined up on both sides of the hot coals walk, aka the burning love walk. Almost everyone in the group looked apprehensive except for two people. 

“Who would like to go first?” asked Tinswell to the whole group. 

“I will.” 

“Me.”

“Why am I not surprised our two crazy chicks volunteer first to walk through fire,” Fusco leaned over to Reese who had a blank slate on his face. 

“Sam, you go first,” Tinswell motioned for the hacker to take her place at start of the walk. 

Joan walked over and touched Root’s arm, “Good luck Sam.” 

Shaw looked away so she could roll her eyes about the irritating assistant and her stupid crush on Root. 

Root said while removing her scandals, “See you on the other side hubby.” The hacker leaned over and surprised John by kissing him on the mouth quickly. He smirked, raised his eyebrows and stole a glance at Shaw who sneered at him. 

Root stood in front of the hot coal walk in her sundress; moonlight washing over bringing out auburn highlights in her hair and making her eyes glow even more. The hacker’s skin getting a golden tan from being on the beach almost all day. Once Shaw looked at her, it was hard to take her eyes off of her. Root held up her dress with one hand and then proceeded to gracefully walk across the hot coals as if she just walking across a room to get a book. 

Tinswell had made Reese move to put him in position at the end of the walk. So Root could stare at him through the walk, of course she kept turning her head discreetly as possible to glance at her petite firecracker instead. 

As soon as Root finished, Tinswell motioned to Reese to cue him, “Good job honey,” the tall primary asset said with squint in his eyes. 

“Next up is Sammy,” announced Tinswell, who was about to continue when she noticed that Shaw was halfway through her walk. 

Fusco had to stop himself from laughing, he jogged over to the end to high five his fake wife when she finished. “That’s my girl!” 

“Sammy, we weren’t ready for your walk of love and truth yet. However, very well done. Very brave,” said Tinswell in slightly annoyed voice. 

“I could do it again,” Shaw said unpretentiously to some pretty shocked faces that anyone would want to walk on hot coals twice in one day. 

“She could do my walk for me,” Fusco offered up. 

“Lionel, just think of the story you’ll have to tell Lee,” Root said softly to Fusco, “Trust us, it won’t hurt you. Well, not too bad.”

“Really reassuring there Coco Puffs,” Fuso looked a little scared looking at the hot coals. 

Fusco stood at the front of the hot coals walk and took deep breath after deep breathe. Shaw was at the end looking at him. 

“C’mon on big guy, you got this!” Shaw cheered to her fake hubby. 

“You can do this Lionel, remember you’re named after a lion,” Root whispered to the detective before moving off to his side. 

Fusco heard a whistle and looked to Reese who nodded to him. And then he did it, Fusco walked briskly across the hot coals while saying ouch on every step down. When he finished Shaw slapped him hard on the back, which felt worse than the hot coals on his feet; geesh he thought the little woman was strong. 

While people were milling around after their glorious walks across the hot coals, Root noticed that Shaw had wandered off down to the ocean. Root walked down to the ocean where Shaw was dipping her feet in the water. The hacker watched the petite primary asset in the moonlight and never saw a more breathtaking view, she never dare say to that to the woman for fear of getting shot again. 

“How are you feet?” asked Root, as she got closer. 

“Medium rare,” Shaw answered back, she had tied up her dress so she could walk out in the water. Root took off her scandals and put her feet in the water too. 

“Just like how you like your steak,” Root said as she moved closer to Shaw. 

“Root…don’t come closer,” Shaw wader further into the water, she didn’t want the hacker any closer to her body. She wanted to taste the hacker so badly and this tropical moonlight stroll in the water wasn’t helping. The petite primary asset could see Tinswell, Joan and the others talking and dancing not that far away. 

“Why?” Root asked with a shy, seductive smile as she continued to get closer to Shaw. The hacker reached out and took Shaw’s hand and was surprised she was able to hold onto it. Until Fusco’s voice shook the two women out of a daze and petite primary asset jerked her hand away. 

“Babycakes, desert is here,” Fusco smiled at his fake wife as he approached his two female co-workers, who looked like they were holding hands. But Fusco thought to himself, Shaw holding hands? No way. 

When they were all seated back at the table with desert, Shaw had three plates in front of her. Dr. Tinswell stood up and addressed them all. “So far this night has been very productive and we will continue our productivity with sleep therapy next.” 

All four teammates very quickly looked at each other with a look of sheer horror on their faces. 

“What the hell is sleep therapy?” Shaw gritted through her teeth to Fusco. 

“How in the hell would I know?” Fusco shot back to his fake wife. 

“John, do you like the right or the left side of the bed?” asked Root of her fake hubby. 

“The floor is better,” Reese said while tapping his ear, “Finch, we can’t check up on the Roths if we are being monitored all night long.” 

“Sadly, if you took the floor that might result in more therapy for us,” replied back Root to a very hard glared from Reese. The hacker was extremely disappointed with this news; she was going to have to get The Machine involved. All these annoying sessions were too much sexual blockage for her body to handle. 

“Gather anything you might need for the night and meet us Ball Room Six for our unconscious workshop,” Tinswell said while she motioned to Joan to follow her. “Our unconscious therapy might show the most illuminating discoveries.” 

Shaw slammed her fist so hard on the table several glasses tumbled over. She tapped earpiece while looking at Root, “Finch, I’m done.” She really needed to spend the night with Root plain and simple; and not with Fusco.


	14. Sleep Therapy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank y’all soooooo much for the kudos, feedback, suggestions and comments! I do have sort of an ending in mind, so this won't be abandoned, I'm just really slow. Thanks T_Ninja for the help! You're awesome! So helpful and encouraging – big thank you!! :-)

The anger coming off one petite primary asset was enough for the rest of the people in the room to steer clear of a small radius around her. 

“Miss Shaw, tonight is finally a substantial enough time to thoroughly check the Roth’s room. And with you and your teammates taking part along with them, they won’t suspect any of you,” Finch tried his hardest to reason with Shaw who stood in front of him in Root and Reese’s room with her hands over her chest and an extremely grumpy expression on her face, bordering on murderous glare towards the man in glasses. Her Mayhem Twin came to stand next to her with his arms crossed over his chest as well. Zoe, Fusco and Bear were milling around the kitchen area. 

“Where is Miss Groves?” asked Finch, the hacker had disappeared after the luau not returning back to her shared room with her fake hubby as quickly as the rest of the team. 

“Well, obviously, she didn’t want to take part in this silly ass mission anymore and took off,” Shaw said in her most surly, salty tone and if that was truly the case she was going to spank the hell out of Root, not that she would enjoy that; okay maybe a little she admitted to herself. 

Root entered the room and everyone looked at her. 

“Please, tell me you got enough evidence so we can skip this next session and go kick some serious ass,” pleaded Shaw to Root. 

“No, but I did get matching pajamas for John and I,” smiled Root to her fake hubby. Reese turned his head to Shaw for a moment of pain and shared mutual annoyance. 

“Try and take it easy on him tonight in bed,” Zoe said rather suggestively to Root while Reese raised his eyebrows to both women in mild surprise. 

“Hey there Buttercup, did you get us matching pjs?” grinned Fusco to his fake wife. 

“Baby, you would do well to wear chainmail tonight to bed,” Shaw winked to Fusco. 

Root wanted Shaw to call her baby, even if it was under false context. 

Finch let out a heavy sigh; he had a feeling this was going to be a long night for everyone, except maybe Bear. 

*****

Shaw and Fusco walked into the large conference room that was portioned off into four separate bedrooms, thankfully each cubicle like room had soundproof walls. Shaw did not want to hear what the other couples sounded like during the night; not even the one she was supposed to be watching or Root and Reese. 

Joan followed behind the fake couple into the room with her clipboard and a very pissed off look on her face. “You two are in room 3,” Fusco walked into the room, then the pesky assistant whispered so only Shaw could hear, “…unless you want to join Sam and John in room 1.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Shaw with a scary tone and face back to Joan, who was shook how fierce the shorter woman appeared now; it was if she was a different person. 

Dr. Tinswell walked into the room and could feel the tension between the two women, “Joan, what is going on?” she asked thoughtfully and with curiosity. 

“Nothing, just going over protocol here with Sammy,” Joan gave a plastic smile to boss. 

Shaw squinted her eyes at Joan. 

“Let’s get you all tucked in with your husband Sammy,” said Tinswell with warm voice, she put her hand on Shaw’s back and guided her into the room with Fusco; Joan followed behind them with her clipboard. 

Tinswell instructed for Shaw and Fusco to lie down on the bed on their sides facing each other, they were instructed to keep gazing into each other’s eyes, so they also tried not to shake their heads and add snarky comments. 

“Let’s practice some physical closeness,” Tinswell said to the fake couple, Shaw and Fusco looked at each with their eyebrows raised. 

Shaw leaned over and whispered in Fusco’s ear, “I’m not spooning you Lionel. And don’t you dare spoon me.”

Fusco then leaned over to his fake wife and whispered back to Shaw, “Believe me no spoons or forks are going through my mind, only knives for this malarkey crap.”

Tinswell smiled thinking the fake couple were whispering terms of endearment to each other. 

“First, Lionel and Sammy…I want you both to keep facing each other, look deeply into each other’s eyes…take three deep breathes…exhale completely…make the whoosh sound,” said Tinswell again with big hand gestures. 

Shaw rolled her eyes to Fusco who smirked back while making an over dramatic whoosh sound. His firecracker fake wife followed suit, with an over exaggerated whoosh. 

“That’s excellent. Now close your mouth and inhale…count to four…” Tinswell watched Shaw and Fusco closely to make sure they were holding their breaths, “…hold the precious breath of life for a count of seven.”

“You know what I would like to inhale for a lot longer than four seconds…you,” Shaw’s eyes opened wider than she expected when Root’s voice filled her head and with just a few words started overwhelming her senses. Damn it Root, thought Shaw who wished she had taken out her earpiece before starting this crap therapy session. 

“Release the whoosh of life for a count of eight,” Tinswell said while leaning over her participating couple, “…one…two…three….four…”

“My whoosh would last a longer than eight…mmmmmm….” Root moaned and did heavy breathing straight into Shaw’s ear and smack into her groin. Even the multi-tasker, extremely skilled petite primary asset was having a hard time focusing on Tinswell’s breathing exercises with Root’s lascivious breathing in her ear. 

“…five…six…seven…and eight. Excellent,” said Tinswell while giving a light pat on the arms of Fusco and Shaw. “You two have created four beautiful human beings…take deep breathes and remember when the lovemaking that created these four humans occurred…step into that moment, savor it. Recreate it.”

It took all of Shaw’s strength not to let out the biggest snort, Fusco gave his fake wife a ‘hey, it’s not that ridiculous' look which made a wicked grin spread across even further across his partner’s face. 

“For this mental exercise of visualizing lovemaking with Lionel, you can swap me in if it helps,” Root chimed in, “No offense to Lionel, but I don’t think he can make you scream like I can,” the hacker croaked out hoarsely while her petite primary asset shifted uncomfortably on the bed with her fake hubby. 

Tinswell moved Fusco’s hand to place it on Shaw’s chest over her heart and then the therapist did the same with Shaw’s hand over Fusco’s heart. “Feel all the love between your two hearts,” the therapist moved away for the couple to have some privacy and to share a moment. 

“Or feel the wet heat between…” Root teased in Shaw’s ear. 

“root,” Shaw gritted out very softly, her fake hubby heard it and got a bemused look on his face. 

“Thinking of Coco Puffs?” whispered Fusco to Shaw with an amused grin, Shaw gave her fake hubby a death glare back. 

Tinswell leaned and asked, “What was that? Lionel is that a nickname for your wife?”

“My wife likes a bowl of coco puffs before she goes to sleep,” said Fusco while his fake wife rolled her eyes. 

Shaw then kicked Fusco hard in the back of his leg under the covers, which caused the detective to slightly hold down a yelp. 

“Sammy, are you hungry? Do you need a snack or perhaps some cereal?” asked a concerned Tinswell to Shaw. 

“Sameen, are you hungry? I am…” Root breathed heavily and added thick with innuendo, “….I like to be full of you.”

“No, I’m good,” Shaw said in hopes of shutting up both annoying woman. 

Tinswell turned to Joan and said discretely so only her assistant could hear, “Write in the notes that Sammy does seem obsessed with cereal despite being possibly lactose intolerant.” Joan nodded and scribbled away on her clipboard. The therapist then moved back to Shaw and Fusco, she tried several attempts to get the couple to spoon successfully, she tried many variations; however, the couple was very stiff together. It was as if the two people had never touched each other before despite been married for years and having four children; a quite perplexing couple for the therapist. 

“Shaw, you seem to be having trouble getting spoony. I’ll have her play some mood music for you,” chimed in Root in between Shaw trying to listen to Tinswell on how to lovingly spoon her fake husband. Then suddenly, her one ear was filled with Coldplay’s music; she held down an epic grimace. Shaw wanted desperately to tear her earpiece out, but couldn’t do so at the moment because of the close proximity of Tinswell. 

Tinswell tried many variations between Fusco and Shaw then decided perhaps the couple sleeping with a few feet between them was good enough, she did convince them to hold hands. 

The sappy Coldplay songs continued to play in Shaw’s ears, Root was really going to get it thought the petite non-spooner. Then suddenly, the music tapered off and the petite primary asset heard the analog interface’s voice again, “Hey, Sweetie. Did you brush your teeth and floss? I could help you with flossing…well, a certain kind of flossing,” Root’s voice took an even more husky, heady stance which made Shaw’s skin burn more; she rolled over and punched her pillow. The petite primary asset definitely wanted to leave the room and find the hacker to floss her up or whatever. Root’s stupid nonsense was now invading her brain. “Actually, I need a little backup. Side entrance, two hallways over from where you are.” 

Shaw’s mouth lifted into a little smile, finally some action she thought. She whispered to Fusco and slipped out of bed. As soon as she closed the partition behind her, boom Joan popped up asking where she was going. 

“Forgot to brush my teeth, is that okay?” asked Shaw in her most saccharine suck up approach and batted her eyelashes, she was going to prove to Root and stupid Joan she could be just as charming. 

“If you’re not back in four minutes, I’ll come looking for you,” Joan said very accusingly to Shaw and wrote something down on her clipboard. Shaw wanted to break that clipboard in half, but refrained. 

“Peachy, thanks,” Shaw said as she moved past the annoying assistant and down the hallway, looking for the exit that Root mentioned. She didn’t really want to leave the building in the hideous pajama pants she was wearing. When she got close to the door leading outside, she checked the area then slipped out. As soon as the door closed, she checked and it locked. Damn it Root, she thought; now she was locked out and would possibly have to go through the main lobby to get back in. 

“Hey,” whispered Root as she appeared to Shaw’s left side.

“Where the hell did you come from?” asked Shaw annoyed. She looked up and down at Root who was wearing demure, old 1940s style classy pajamas, which she imagined Reese to be wearing a matching pair. 

Root looked up and down at Shaw’s pajama pants and tank top. “Awww, Sameen. You’re wearing my pajama pants,” Root’s smile beamed across her face as she put her hand on Shaw’s hip and tugged at the Grumpy Cat pajama pants. 

“Yeah, I figured my boring cover identity would probably wear some hideous pajama pants like yours considering she’s wearing matching tracksuits with her husband. So where’s the threat?” Shaw swatted Root’s hand away from her hideous pajama pants, especially considering that the hacker was thirty seconds from slipping her hand down the front. “Are the scientists doing something? Cause The Roths are still trapped in sleep therapy hell.”

Root had that faraway, concentrated look in her eyes when The Machine was talking to her; Shaw waited making only hurry hand gestures a few times. The hacker looked in both directions and did a quick scan of the area. 

“We got to hurry…this way,” Root started running at a surprising speed that Shaw struggled to keep up in the hideous pajama pants. They both ran down the beach, quite far until they finally stopped in front of the bar that was located next to the resort; the same place Shaw had shown off her crazed jellyfish karaoke skills. Root lead them around to the back, where they snuck in and saw two guys wearing ski masks holding guns, cleaning out a small vault and a scared man bound and gag in an office. They both crouched, near the office door; lining the hallways were all kinds of memorabilia relating to boating, fishing and Hawaiian culture. 

“Just a small irrelevant matter She asked us to take care of. She also thought we needed some action,” Root looked up and down Shaw’s body, and then licked her lips. 

Root nodded to Shaw who locked eyes with her and they both grabbed a decorative boat oar off the wall, snuck up and smacked each guy in the face. Both bad guys fell down but one got up pretty quickly, Shaw kicked him in the stomach, then grabbed him by the collar and punched him a few more times until he passed out. Root looked to her co-worker crush with an admiring smile while she went over and untied the captive man. 

“Thank you both so much, they were going to take everything,” the freed man looked between both women with such gratitude, Shaw was busy finding some rope and tying up both perpetrators until the cops could arrive. The owner man then looked really closely at Shaw, “Do I know you?”

Shaw stood up and looked to the owner man, as both perpetrators were successful secured, “No, I don’t think so.” The petite primary asset was suddenly conscious of her hideous pajama pants. 

“Got it! You look like someone who did a legendary karaoke set here the other day. Dude! We are still talking about her!” the owner man looked star struck at Shaw, then turned to Root before having a similar less excited response to her face, “You look kind of familiar too.” He then turned around and rummaged through a bookcase full of tapes, CDS and DVDs; knocking over ones he didn’t want. “You’re the one she was singing too! Dude, when you jumped off the stage and lunged for her and the crowd went wild, knocking over those guys stopping you,” the owner man was clearly having fun recalling this memorable karaoke performance. 

Shaw looked uncomfortable and gave a pointed look to Root. 

“Well, we gotta run. We would prefer you not mention us to the authorities,” the hacker bent down and stilled the owner man rummaging actions momentarily to give him one of her truly mega watt smiles with her powerful brown magical eyes casting a spell over him. 

The owner man did look transfixed by Root, and then he snapped back to the bookcase and as Root and Shaw were walking out the door, he yelled out, “I found it!” He ran over to them, and pressed the DVD into Shaw’s hands, “Here’s the DVD of your performance the other night, one of our best. Do you mind if I use the video in social media marketing?”

Shaw seethed and was about to snap the DVD in half before Root yanked it out of her hand. The petite firecracker immediately reached for it but the hacker raised her hand as high as she could, out of reach of the shorter woman. Shaw promptly tickled one of Root’s overly sensitive spots roughly in her side. Root doubled over where Shaw grabbed back the DVD. 

The owner man watched the two women leave with a very puzzled look on his face. Then he yelled after them, “Thank you both! Free karaoke anytime!” 

Shaw stormed out of the bar and started running back to the resort. She paused when she got close and Root caught up to her. “I’m not going through the main lobby,” Shaw huffed out still holding onto the DVD with a death grip. Root reached for it and got her hand slapped. 

“No, Joan is roaming the halls looking for you,” Root grabbed Shaw’s other hand and dragged her to the side entrance again. 

“How does she not care that you’re gone?” asked Shaw not wanting to think how holding Root’s hand was just exhilarating as beating up those bad guys. 

“Because I’m conditioning my hair,” Root said raising both her eyebrows with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “I told her it was a twice weekly ritual and I couldn’t change my beauty regime, then I offered for her to comb out my hair later,” said Root while licking her lips, casting her magical brown eyes at Shaw. 

Shaw squeezed hard on Root’s hand, clearly not liking this motivation for Joan. 

The Machine unlocked the side entrance for her analog interface and petite primary asset; they walked quietly down the hallway towards the big conference room until Root pulled them into a dark empty room. 

Root pushed Shaw down onto one of the tabletops in the dark empty conference room, and then pulled down the hideous pajama pants and Shaw’s black boy shorts very aggressively. Root ran her hands up Shaw’s thighs, dragging and digging her nails along spots. She then lowered her face and started a trail of kisses up Shaw’s thigh, as she got closer she dragged her tongue across the flesh. 

It all happened so fast, Shaw felt like her head was spinning, not that she was complaining; fast was needed in this situation. “Root…uhhhh…what about Joan?” Shaw croaked out in between begrudgingly labored breathing. 

“The Machine is diverting her,” Root replied quickly before going back and finally devouring her petite primary asset. 

When Root’s mouth finally landed where Shaw needed it the most, she thought her petite firecracker was going to squirm off the table from bucking her hips so roughly; she gripped and held on tighter. Root pushed her tongue deeply into Shaw, she felt her shudder and then briefly, very unexpectedly quietly shout her name. The hacker was pretty sure her petite firecracker would never admit to shouting her name and so quickly. 

Shaw’s breathing barely calmed down when Root broke the silence reluctantly, “We gotta go. Joan is on the hunt again, she’s pointed out once again we’re both gone at the same time, despite my hair conditioning. I really thought that orange thing would have helped.” 

“It helped in the way, that she wants more orange time with you,” Shaw scoffed. 

“Well, you know…” Root replied back “…your orange is the only one I want to squeeze the juices from.”

They were both still for a moment, they locked eyes then locked their lips. The petite primary asset tangled her hands in the hacker’s hair and held tight, she wasn’t getting away from her not yet. The petite primary asset then ran her hand down to grab a hold of the hacker’s ass. Root held onto Shaw’s hair tight as she opened her mouth wide to capture the petite asset’s tongue between her lips and suck on it.

Root looked down at Shaw before moving off of her, Shaw stared at her confused, still slightly calming her breathing and still completely turned on. “I get it Sweetie, you have spent the last four nights with me. Are you going to miss me?” Root smirked at Shaw while grinding her hips hard into her petite primary asset. 

“Yeah, that’s not it,” snapped back Shaw to Root, pushing harder into the hacker. 

“Are you sure?”

Root looked at Shaw somewhat smug. 

“Uh…just no time to…your taco…” Shaw cringed a little saying it because even though the words stung to say, she really wanted to do the action, “didn’t get…sauced.” 

“Well, who knows…I am about to get into bed with a tall, virile man.” 

Shaw didn’t like this statement at all, so she reached down, slid her fingers through Root’s pajama pants and underwear to find the hacker soaked through and through. Root lowered her head onto Shaw’s shoulder; she acted as if she was going to lose balance even though she was lying on top of Shaw on a table. A loud whispered moan escaped the hacker’s throat. Shaw didn’t linger, she circled slowly and then swiped up and pulled her hand out, glistening in the dark, completely coated by Root’s arousal where she put her fingers in her mouth and sucked on them. The hacker watched with glazed eyes hungrily. She then kissed Root hard, swirling her tongue in the hacker’s mouth to make sure she could taste herself. Tasting herself on her favorite primary asset’s lips almost made Root come undone completely. She didn’t know how she was going to sleep at all tonight, except for fevered dreams of one sexy compact Persian. 

They both got off the table and tried to make themselves presentable quickly. 

“Don’t let Reese hog the covers,” Shaw glared at her, “Or better yet, you sleep under the covers and he sleeps on top. So you’re both not uh…under the covers at the same time.” 

Root couldn’t help high wattage smile at her petite primary asset for not wanting her and Reese to be under bed covers together. She grabbed Shaw hard and kissed her again. She reached into her pocket and pulled out something and put it in Shaw’s hands. “A few things that might help you get through the night. Safety first. Later, sweetie.” 

*****

Joan was getting more and more confident and agitated going up and down the halls looking for one cheating spouse. She had already checked the bathroom five times and still hadn’t found Sammy yet. She checked her room and she wasn’t there either. 

Tinswell appeared in the hallway in front of the conference room where the sleep therapy was being conducted. “Where is Sammy?” 

“Well, she said she was going to brush her teeth but she’s not in the bathroom or any where else to be found. Once again, Dr. Tinswell, I have to point out that Sam is also absent…going back to my theory,” Joan continued on while Tinswell walked to the bathroom. “She’s not in there,” said Joan with a smug face. 

Tinswell opened the bathroom door and there was Shaw brushing her teeth. She turned to both of them and spit out. “Sorry, got a lot of pig from the luau stuck in my teeth,” said Shaw as she started flossing. 

When Shaw got back to her bed with Fusco, her fake husband woke up a little and whispered to her, “You smell like Coco Puffs.” 

Shaw could hear the shit-eating grin in his voice. “I was brushing my teeth asshole.” She then brought out what Root had given her, wax earplugs and a sleep mask. She inserted the wax earplugs and put on the mask. Shaw smelled herself discreetly, she did smell like Root and she hated to admit that the smell might have helped her finally fall asleep while blocking out decibel breaking sound barriers of Fusco’s snoring that seeped in despite the wax earplugs strength. 

*****

“Did you give Shaw a good night kiss?” whispered Reese to Root as she slipped into bed with him. 

“In a manner of speaking. Did you want one John?” 

Root flung her leg over John’s hip, since he was under the covers and she was on top it was just the way Shaw wanted it. She wrapped her arm around his chest; he lifted up his head and raised his eyebrows to the hacker. 

Suddenly, Dr. Tinswell’s voice came over a speaker, “We can turn off the cameras if you need immediate intimate time with each other.”

Root smiled at John and raised her eyebrows to her male teammate. 

“No, we’re good,” Reese replied back to Tinswell while Root smirked at her fake hubby. 

“My husband has a headache,” said Root fake pouted as she flopped back down on her side of the bed. 

“Well, clearly their sexual problems are with John,” said Joan to Tinswell, who nodded in agreement. 

Root did have a fair amount of fun annoying John for the next few hours with flailing her arms across his face, kicking him with her legs and talking in her sleep, perhaps whispering ‘Zoe’ to him a few times. She threw in some moans saying ‘Zoe’ too for good annoyance measure. 

*****

When morning finally rolled around, everyone participating in sleep therapy wandered out into the hallway looking exhausted with bags under their eyes; the older couple Betty and Fred were the only that looked remotely refreshed. 

Fusco turned to Shaw, “Do you want to know that you were talking in your sleep?” the detective said in between yawns.

“Lionel, I’m a trained operative. I don’t talk in my sleep,” said Shaw somewhat confidently. 

“Actually, it was more like moaning. There was only one word repeated over and over,” joked Fusco as he tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. 

“Lionel, stop right there. I’m really surprised you could hear anything over your snoring,” Shaw hit back just as Tinswell and Joan called out for the fake couple to talk privately. 

Tinswell and Joan escorted Fusco and Shaw into a smaller room off the hallway that was set up with monitors for surveillance for all the makeshift rooms all throughout the night. They were seated; Tinswell told them she wanted to show them some footage from their sleep therapy session. Joan stood off to the side with clipboard and a judgmental stance, for some reason she didn’t look tired; which made the annoying assistant even more annoying. 

All Shaw wanted was a steak and a hot shower, yet she was once again in a private session with her fake husband and the two most irritating people in the world. Pancakes. She really wanted pancakes. Root. She really wanted Root. No, she shook her head; she wanted steak pancakes. The petite primary asset realized she wasn’t paying attention. Tinswell started the playback of the footage and motioned for the fake couple to watch. 

The footage showed Shaw and Fusco sleeping on opposite sides of the bed. Shaw was on her side with the sleep mask on and hugging a pillow; Fusco was flat on his back, snoring up a storm. Then Shaw started moaning on the footage, very faint, but she was definitely moaning something and dreaming. And she hugged the pillow tighter. 

“Sammy, it’s hard to make out what it is you’re repeating over and over. Boot or moot? Or root? It appears to be a dream of a sexual nature,” said Tinswell speculating on the footage before them. 

Shaw wanted to smash something with her hands so violently or crawl under the table, or better yet smash the table to pieces. And throttle one insatiable hacker who invaded not only her personal space but also her headspace now. Damn Root, getting under her skin enough to have some silly ass wet dream. She could barely watch herself moaning the hacker’s name over and over. It wasn’t like they hadn’t had sex, they had now; well, at least one and a half times and it was too quick and there needed to be a few times to get the hacker out of her system. Maybe a few really long times with no interruptions. And maybe a few times that involved tying up the annoying hacker. And maybe a few times where Root could tie her up, but then that’s it. The petite primary asset couldn’t believe her brain was playing highlights at night; like rerunning the Olympics at night for the people who had to work during the day. Or a favorite TV show someone wants to watch over and over again. Shaw turned and looked at Fusco with a confused face. 

The detective had a soft look on his face when he spoke to the therapist and her assistant; clearly his teammate needed help on this one. “Okay, I admit…my baby cakes gave me these kick ass boots for Christmas last year. They really get her going when I wear them, if you know what I mean,” Fusco said while gesturing with his hands. 

Shaw was definitely going to murder her fake husband. 

“So sometimes, when we make whoopee…I wear them…because she gets really really…”

“They get it,” snapped Shaw to her fake, yet somewhat helpful husband. 

Shaw was definitely going to kill Fusco. Then Root. Then Dr. Tinswell. And Joan just for fun. She didn’t know what was worse, listening to a fake account of her having sex with Fusco or that her fake persona thought he was hotter while wearing cowboy boots while knocking boots. 

“Actually, it sounds like she’s saying root to me,” said Joan while squinting her eyes at Shaw. “Doctor, could also be dendrophilia.” 

Fusco gave a really wild, confused face to the doctor and assistant. 

“True, I suppose it could be dendrophilia, however not all cases are sexual in nature but this one could be,” said Tinswell while thinking out loud and Joan writing down notes on her clipboard. 

Joan could tell Fusco didn’t know what the term meant from his bewildered expression, she directed her comment at him, “Dendrophilia is….” 

“No, it’s the boots…those damn boots,” Shaw gritted out with her teeth before the words could leave her mouth, and before Tinswell could explain the definition of dendrophilia, Fusco just kept staring with bewildering looking between the three women. Shaw felt an intense hot rage at Root for the stupid sex dream she had about the hacker. She couldn’t wait to find her and throttle her, but then again that might be something they both enjoy.


	15. The Main Event (aka Karaoke Therapy)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank y’all so much for the kudos and comments! So very much appreciated! :-) I can’t thank T_Ninja enough for the help, support and all her brilliant ideas! Can’t believe she encouraged me to do more karaoke. Happy Halloween! (sorry for all typos and grammar faux pas)

Shaw shook her head in hopes of permanently deleting from her memory hard drive the image of herself having a sex dream about Root. She headed towards the hacker’s room. Yes, she had a key card to Root and Reese’s room and she wasn’t saying where she got it. She slipped into the room and didn’t see Reese, but could hear his shower running. She barged into Root’s room and found her asleep on her bed. The hacker couldn’t have been asleep that long, although she did have about a ten minute gain since Shaw had to endure the ridiculous post-mortem session on her sleep therapy with Fusco. Her brain was thinking of many ways to blow up at the hacker. Or maybe throw a bucket of ice on her. Or better yet, dump the bucket of ice down her own pants to stop lusting after the annoying hacker. Shaw shook her head; she really hoped these were after effects from the jellyfish sting, this constant need to be all over Root. Then before she really knew what she was doing, she kicked off her shoes, secured the door and got on the bed. Root was curled up on her side and Shaw didn’t want to think how beautiful she looked and she wanted, practically needed to have the hacker’s tongue back in her mouth and deep in other areas. Shaw crawled up behind her, as soon as she got close the hacker reached out and grabbed her arm and pulled her so that her petite firecracker was spooning her. Their bodies melded together like two Lego pieces fitting perfectly. The spooning happened so quickly and naturally, neither one of them thought how they accomplished it so effortlessly for which they both laboriously could not fake with their other teammates. 

Before Shaw’s brain could fully comprehend what she was doing, she was spooning Root, sucking on her neck, one hand already down the hacker’s pajama bottoms and the other one underneath her shirt teasing her breast. Good gravy she thought, this island really was doing a number on her libido and brain. Her libido was definitely like one of their numbers, it needed saving because it was very close to being murdered by her. It was as if the floodgates had opened in concern to Root, and she had a quick worried thought that they might not be able to be closed again. She had managed for a long time to keep Root at arm’s length despite the constant flirting, innuendo and obvious attraction from the hacker; and she fought daily on her urges to jump the tall, lanky woman and reciprocate all those actions. The only goal now was to have Root so much that she wouldn’t want her again. A Root overload seemed like the most logical course of action at the moment her brain thought. Root started responding immediately to Shaw’s actions, she reached behind, slipped her hand down her favorite primary asset’s pants to squeeze her ass hard and dig her nails in a little. 

“Oh god…Sameen please don’t stop…I’ll kill anyone that knocks on that door,” Root croaked out in between moans and gasps for air. She turned her head to lock eyes with Shaw; the petite primary asset used this opportunity to lunge for the hacker’s lips. Root immediately slipped her tongue into Shaw’s mouth and the petite primary asset let a moan slip out, then regretted it as she could feel fell Root’s lips move slightly into a grin. 

“Shut up…you try sleeping next to Fusco all night,” Shaw spat out while moving down to suck on Root’s neck again and urgently roaming her hands all over the hacker’s body.

Root wanted to mention how The Machine had already told her there was some footage of Shaw having a sex dream with what sounded like mentioning her name repeatedly and more importantly moaning her name. However, she felt like that would definitely scare off the badass petite primary asset, so she didn’t and she filed away that information maybe someday for a later time. It made her heart feel ten times warmer and bigger knowing in some way she had gotten to Shaw. Even if it was just sex, maybe that could be a start. Once again, her heart was hoping for something more than her brain was willing to see or compute knowing the target of her affections. 

“Did Lionel get you juiced up?”

Shaw stilled her actions, “Wow, that’s a real clit shrinker there. Can we not talk about Fusco right now?” Shaw moved further down Root’s body, pulling off the hacker’s pajama bottoms hastily and underwear in one fell swoop. When she had the hacker pantless, she admired the magnificent display briefly before Root reached out for her. The petite primary asset pushed the hacker’s legs farther apart and kissed hungrily along her stomach aiming for Root’s central motherboard of her lower regions.

Root was having extreme trouble holding down her louder moans as Shaw devoured her. The first moment Shaw’s mouth landed where she needed it most she thought she was going to scream. Then Shaw added two fingers and she felt like she was going to black out. 

And then there was a knock on the door.

Shaw jerked her head up and was about to get off Root instead of getting her off, however the hacker grabbed her hand and held on tighter and stronger than the petite firecracker thought possible of the bony armed woman below her. And Root coiled her legs so tightly around Shaw’s torso that she restricted the petite primary asset’s breathing a tiny fraction.

“Root? Are you in there? We gotta be on the beach area per Finch and the crazed therapist lady,” said Reese, while knocking on the door again. 

Shaw whispered to Root, “If you say you’re coming, this never happens again.”

Root had a pained look on her face mixed with extreme frustration, “Be right there,” the hacker yelled back, then she looked to Shaw in between labored breathes and whispered to her, “…is that better?” She also looked at the door and noticed that the big armchair was in front of it with the ottoman on top of the chair for extra weight. “Sameen…” the hacker beamed out a smile, “…did you want some alone time with me?” The hacker’s face couldn’t stop smiling thinking that her favorite primary asset went to the trouble to blockade the door so they could have some privacy, “That’s kind of sweet.”

“Shut up,” Shaw once again struggled to break free but Root had her legs around her favorite primary asset so tight it was like the jaws of life or the jaws of sex legs. 

“Hurry up, Finch needs to see us before we head down to the beach,” Reese spoke again, both women gritting their teeth at his interruption. 

“Shaw…you better finish what you started or I’m going to release the video of you singing 80s karaoke for the world to see,” Root threatened while bucking her hips up towards Shaw. 

“You know…blackmail kind of turns me on,” Shaw said and she started back up again at a faster pace, severely aware that possible team members were on the other side of the door. There was something so beyond intoxicating about Root and she couldn’t pull away despite foreseeable consequences and silly ass jokes from said team members. Only a slight twinge of guilt fleeted across her brain about the possible mission, and technically if it was just a debriefing or lecture by Finch; that could wait. And she did spend all night working; she definitely needed at least a fifteen-minute break. And if that break included having as much sex as possible with Root, then she really needed the work break. 

Another knock on the door, “Root, let’s go. You know I hate being late.” Reese had no idea how close he was to getting shot by one reformed killer for hire. 

“JOHN!!! I’ll meet you there!” Root yelled out angrily to Reese on the other side of the door. 

“You know what else turns me on…you being sassy with Reese,” said Shaw while she placed more open mouthed sloppy kisses on a trail back down Root’s body. 

“Sometimes he only responds to butch,” Root smirked back to Shaw. 

When Root heard the outer door to the hotel room close she let out the moans she had been desperately holding down. And before she knew it she screamed out Sameen’s name and felt like there was no blood at all flowing to her brain. Before Root completely caught her breath, she started tugging down Shaw’s pajama bottoms. 

“Root…” Shaw squeaked out and got pissed at how ragged and affected her voice sounded, “…we gotta go…you heard the man,” and she let out a few grunts and moans she couldn’t control. 

Root continued to struggle to get Shaw’s pajama pants off while the petite primary asset had her pinned down on the bed. The hacker was successful despite the fake protests from her favorite primary asset; she ran her hand down Shaw’s body and felt the hot moist vagina volcano eruption going on. 

“Hot lava is just pouring out of you,” Root had a wicked smirk on her face. 

“You’re such a nerd. Is that your version of saying I’m really wet?”

“How about…there’s a typhoon in your panties? A tsunami crashing in your vagina…” Root continued on with the ridiculous innuendo and placed sloppy, kisses along Shaw’s neck. 

“Stop,” Shaw barely got out as Root slid inside and she closed her eyes, which brought a smug grin from Root. 

“Stop this…” Root said while thumb circled Shaw but never quite hit the sweet spot, “…or this…” as the hacker added another finger. 

Root pulled her hand away slowly from where Shaw needed it the most right now. 

“Root…” growled out Shaw who was about to get furious when she realized that Root had torn off her top and was struggling to get hers off. Shaw pulled up and yanked her sports bra off, then Root pulled Shaw back on top of her finally without anything between them. They both stared into each other’s eyes, feeling mixed shudders and sparks between them as they molded together with full body skin on skin contact finally. “That was a bad idea,” Shaw hoarsely croaked out while her whole body ignored her words and moved on its own accord, reacting to every inch of Root. Shaw ran her hands over as much as Root’s skin as possible. 

“Some of my bad ideas are the best,” Root breathed out while closing her eyes, administering her fingers so deftly into Shaw that she was unable to control her own moans. “Like reading your file.” The hacker very quickly rolled them over so she could top her favorite primary asset. 

Then Shaw rolled them over again not realizing they were close to the edge of the bed where they both rolled off with a loud thump and a loud gasp from Root on the carpeted floor. 

“UH,” grunted out Shaw who somehow took most of the blunt of the fall despite having almost been the one on top. “I think you just broke my back,” Shaw smirked with not even a trace of anger surprisingly. 

“There’s no better way to break a back than in bed,” Root rolled them over so Shaw was on top of her. 

“Technically the floor,” Shaw said as she looked down in Root’s eyes, those damn brown magical eyes that were looking back at her in such a way that she felt the air sucked out of her chest, although she could chalk it up to having the wind knocked out of her because of the bed drop fall. 

Root reached up and pushed Shaw’s hair out of her eyes, ran her hands through the dark, adorably sexy messy hair and couldn’t stop staring at her petite primary asset. They stilled for a moment, just staring into each other’s eyes while moving against each other made Shaw’s stomach tightened, she put both her arms down trapping Root’s head, leaned down and started kissing the hacker again. Her stomach stayed tightened but in a more aroused way and less in an uncomfortable way that the hacker seemed to bring out in her with those damn mesmerizing eyes. 

Then Shaw’s phone rang (even though she knew her ringtone was off), then Root’s phone rang and then the hotel resort phone rang; all at the same time. Both women stopped kissing and looked around. 

“I’m going to kill them all,” whined Root. 

“Except Bear,” warned Shaw as she moved off Root and started looking for her clothes, avoiding getting stuck in the hacker’s jaws of sex legs again. 

“Never Bear,” said Root as she stood up and watched Shaw gather up clothes from the floor and bed. 

Shaw found the hacker’s shirt and threw it in her face; which then caused Root to grab onto Shaw’s shorts before she could put them on. Then Shaw found Root’s underwear, she sat on the corner of the bed and held them hostage for exchange of her shorts; they were not trading any more clothes. Root twirled the shorts in hand while she sauntered up to Shaw; she had managed to put her shirt back on. The petite primary asset decided to take the initiative and actually lowered the underwear out for the hacker to step into them. Root couldn’t help the smug, sexy smirk that spread across her face watching Shaw do something almost kind of romantic, although she knew she was only really doing it to get her shorts back. The gesture was like an R-rated version of Cinderella, if Cinderella had lost her underwear to Prince Charming instead of her shoe. Root stood for a moment in between Shaw’s legs, so the petite primary asset ran her hands up and down the hacker’s long legs. 

At first Root thought these interruptions were just frustrating, but now every time one of these infuriating interruptions happened, it meant that might be her last time to be with Sameen. With every interruption is the chance the threat will be eliminated and they will all return to New York and their island deal will be over. She ran her hands through Shaw’s hair, running her fingernails across her scalp. She needed to talk to The Machine, see if she could stall them a few more days; she didn’t want to give up Shaw just yet. Okay, maybe never but at least she could push for a few extra days; depending on the threat level and how things were going in New York without the team there to help save people. 

The petite primary asset did not want to admit that Root massaging her scalp was comforting or how damn good it felt; she felt dazed. Then she forced herself to snap out of it, they had work to do. Hopefully, they could isolate the threat quickly or get through any stupid therapy session fast so they could come back to the room. Shaw didn’t want to admit that it was very rare for her to look forward to being with the same person multiple times; there was always that risk of the other person getting attached. She knew Root was already attached so at least that was out in the open. She wasn’t sure what attached felt like, yet she did know she wanted to have sex with the hacker a lot more times and got angry when she thought of someone else having sex with her. Shaw shook her head and went over to her suitcase and rummaged around for her toothbrush, she remembered she wanted to kick Fusco’s ass for bringing her suitcase and leaving it in Root’s room; however, it has come in handy with her stuff being here. She also did not want to admit how she had spent almost every night and every waking hour with Root, and had managed not to maim or kill the woman yet; only kissing her entirely too much. 

Shaw pulled out her toothbrush and headed towards the bathroom where she started brushing her teeth. Root followed along behind her, making sure to brush up and lean against Shaw several times while retrieving her toothbrush and using the petite primary asset’s toothpaste. They stood silently for a few moments while both brushing their teeth and eyeing each other in the mirror. Each time Root looked at Shaw, the petite firecracker would roll her eyes. As soon as Shaw went to take a spit take, so did Root; she did this several times until the petite firecracker grabbed her waist and held her back until she was finished. Root pushed back. Soon they had their hands all over each other and they were kissing despite toothpaste smeared all over their mouths which caused an even more tingling sensation with a slight actual burn from the strong mint flavored toothpaste. As soon as their kissing got deeper and more heated, with toothpaste smeared all over their faces and hands wandering way too low into nether regions, all three phones rang again at the same time. They both turned their heads and looked out into the room. Root looked at Shaw, brought up her hand to wipe off some toothpaste from the petite primary asset’s check, which brought a half eye roll.

As soon as they made themselves presentable, Root and Shaw headed for the door to leave. 

“Wait, we can’t arrive at the beach area together. It will set off Joan and the guys,” Shaw grabbed Root’s arm before she opened the door. 

“Let me go first since I have a fastidious on time fake hubby waiting to berate me for being late,” Root left the room and headed towards the beach area. 

As soon as Root arrived, she spotted Fusco and Reese by a table set up with snacks under small tent near the beach area. 

“Figured this would be the first spot my wife would hit when she arrived. Where’s your almost as crazy other half?” asked Fusco of Root with smile. 

“Do I look like a Shaw locator?” said Root as she reached over and got a bottle of water and an apple. 

“Yeah,” both men replied at the same time. 

“Coca Puffs what do you have in your hair?” Fusco spotted some white stuff in the tall hacker’s hair.

“Oh, I must have missed while brushing my teeth. I didn’t sleep well last night, somebody didn’t want to cuddle,” Root pouted to John while reaching up in her to try and get out the toothpaste out of her hair. She finally gave up and pulled her hair into a ponytail. 

Shaw jogged up to her teammates with a slight glean of sweat on her body, pulling out ear buds from her ears. 

“Where are you coming from?” asked Fusco in between bites of a bagel. 

Shaw shot Root a very harsh look not to respond verbally, so the hacker opted for mouthing a discreet ‘me’ to the other woman. 

Root looked too adoringly at her fellow female teammate, she spotted some toothpaste in Shaw’s hair and reached to pull it out or hide it before Fusco could see it linking the two of them together. 

“Root…what are you doing?” said Shaw as she tried to swat the hacker’s hand from her hair. 

“You have some bird poop in your hair,” Root dug in trying to get the chuck of toothpaste dislodged from Shaw’s hair. 

“Sure it’s not toothpaste?” smirked the detective. 

Root had to give it to Fusco, he was a damn good detective who could spot details. “No, it’s bird poop. Here, Lionel she’s your wife. You take care of the bird poop.”

“Nah, you’re already there,” said Fusco with a disgusted face. 

Shaw continued to swat away Root’s hands in her hair. “I’m sure it’s fine, leave it.”

Soon Tinswell had brought all the couples together to stand in the sand for their next exercise. 

“We are going to do more deep eye contact exercises. Keep eye contact and be honest – two people looking directly into each other’s eyes and speaking their truths. You can tell your partner everything…deep breathes….let’s begin,” Tinswell instructed while roaming around the room and watching the five couples. “Don’t break eye contact with each other. Stare deeply into each other’s eyes and tell them anything.” 

Tinswell was circling to Root and Reese, “John, sometimes I feel I need you to be more in the moment like when picking up coffee,” the hacker looked intensely into the tall primary asset’s eyes with a smirk, the big lug sometimes got her coffee order wrong. 

“Sam, when you borrow my things, put them back,” Reese stared back at Root; definitely referring to his guns and bombs. 

“Keep sharing everyone…keep staring into your partner’s eyes…keep communicating, communication is the key to life,” Tinswell kept spouting off instructions while walking around and watching all the couples, Joan following behind her taking notes on her clipboard. 

Fusco noticed the doc wouldn’t be back to them for a few minutes, “Lets try and say the same thing at the same time while staring at each other,” said the detective in an effort to help with the boredom of this exercise. 

“Whatever,” replied back Shaw with a half eye roll. 

“Okay…one two three,” Fusco counted down. 

“Steak,” Shaw said. 

“Boots,” Fusco said, they both shook their heads. 

"One two three.” 

“Pancakes,” Shaw said staring at Fusco. 

“Bacon,” replied Fusco staring at Shaw, they both shrugged a not half bad.

"One two three.” 

“Beatrice,” said Shaw. 

“Lillie,” said Fusco, they both smiled goofy smiles at each other. “Hey, that was cool!” Fusco said too loudly, everyone in the room turned and stared at the fake couple. Shaw high fived her fake hubby then continued the exercise. 

After the staring truth exercise, came a short yoga session on the beach in the sand, much to the horror of the teammates. 

*****

Thankfully, it was announced the next activity would be watching a video with snacks, something Shaw could finally not completely snarl at, she really wanted more food. Root sat next to Shaw telling her she would share her snacks for the seat, the petite primary asset grunted back a shrug. When everyone was settled with a few snacks Tinswell began the video introduction. 

“We are going to watch a Ted Talk now by Esther Perel because I’m a big enough person to admit, I can not teach you all everything; there are far better teachers in some areas. So relax, deep breathes and let’s listen and really absorb these words and ideas in this talk about desire in long term relationships,” Tinswell made big deep breaths gestures then settled down in a chair off to the side and signaled to Joan to start the video. 

“One of the big reasons I like our jobs is because it prevents long term relationships,” whispered Shaw to Reese who leaned over Root. The tall primary asset gave his fellow petite primary asset a sad smile. 

Fusco on the other side of Shaw, reached out for her hand and held it in between both of his. “Let’s pay attention Buttercup, although we don’t really need help in the desire area. We’ve got four strong healthy boys,” the detective smirked to his fake wife who desperately wanted to yank her hand from her fake husband. Root leaned forward to smile at both of them. If the lights had been darker, Shaw knew Root would probably have taken the opportunity to try and hold her other hand. 

Everyone sat there as the video played on. Coming from the video talk, “You know, this is the first time in the history of humankind where we are trying to experience sexuality in the long term not because we want 14 children…” Fusco took this to rib his fake wife who scowled back at him, the talk continued on. “…for which we need to have even more because many of them won’t make it, and not because it is exclusively a woman’s marital duty. This is the first time that we want sex over time about pleasure and connection that is rooted in desire.” And now Root was poking Shaw in the ribs, the petite primary asset did not like being sandwiched between these two. And she then realized that she desperately wanted a sandwich.

The talk went on for about twenty minutes then Tinswell recapped it extensively, when she really stressed the word ‘rooted’, which made Shaw squirm and Root beam out a smile and a non-wink at her.

****

After the hour-long video session it was time for another more physical activity. When all five couples walked out of the slightly darkened room, Reese looked like he had just woken up from a nap. 

A few golf carts were lined up to take everyone over to the beach bar next door for the next session. Shaw raced forward and got in the driver’s seat before Fusco much to his grimace. Reese and Root sat in the back seat. Shaw speed the golf cart off toward the off site property next door. 

“Hey, we’re going back to that karaoke bar where Shaw did that legendary 80s performance to Coca Puffs,” Fusco said while pointing to the bar off in the distance.

Shaw gripped the steeling wheel harder, “I’m sure I wasn’t singing to Root,” she snapped back to her fake hubby. 

“How are you sure? I thought you didn’t remember anything from your blackout jellyfish crazy period? Reese back me up here, was Shorty singing to Coca Puffs?”

“Sorry, Shaw…you were singing to Root. Because of the jellyfish,” agreed Reese to Fusco, yet tried to let Shaw down easy.

Surprisingly, the hacker stayed quiet in the backseat, jellyfish sting or not; Shaw sang to her that’s all that mattered. 

When they walked into the beach karaoke bar, both Root and Shaw lowered their heads as to not be recognized by the owner once again, once for the memorable performance and for last night’s saving. 

The five couples were seated up near a small stage, thankfully not the main stage. A smaller stage was in the back that still had a view of the ocean and not enough tables and chairs for a large audience. As soon as everyone was seated Tinswell instructed they were doing karaoke therapy. 

“How in the hell is karaoke supposed to help anyone?” seethed out Shaw to Fusco. 

“Why do you keep asking me these insane questions? Do I look like Cuckoopedia?” barked back Fusco to his fake wife. 

Tinswell gestured with her hands for everyone to take deep breathes. “Yes, I can see by your faces that this particular exercise is baffling. Trust us, there is something about singing that sets the soul free. Something about dancing like no one is watching that sets the soul free.”

“She’s always watching,” Root whispered to her teammates. All her teammates groaned. 

The teammates were sitting at close adjacent tables. They endured Betty singing Patsy Cline’s ‘Crazy’, which was pretty descent until Fred broke down into a sobbing mess. Then Fred sadly, also cried while singing Alessia Cara’s ‘Outlaws’; which struck Root as a really weird song choice for the older man. Next up, was the young couple woman belting out Celine Dion’s ‘Love Can Move Mountains’, the young couple man butchering Drake’s ‘Best I Ever Had’, the Roth woman talk singing through Madonna’s ‘Like A Virgin’ clearly the woman was a little tipsy, then the Roth man sang all the parts to the Beastie Boys ‘Sure Shot’ to a lot of confused faces. 

“Sweetie, I’ll pay you a thousand bucks if you sing a Sinatra,” Root said to Reese who just raised his eyebrows to her. Shaw rolled her eyes at both of them. “Five thousand to you,” Root then stared at Shaw. Her petite primary asset’s response was to shove a chicken finger in her mouth; the hacker smirked back and excused herself from the table. 

Then Tinswell called up Fusco to the stage. The detective really did look like a deer caught in karaoke headlights with wide eyes and frizzy hair from the humid beach air. 

“Since I got stung by a jellyfish for you, I should get to pick your song,” Shaw followed Fusco up to the small stage and grabbed the tablet to scroll the song list. 

“Hey, that’s not fair. At least pick something by The Boss or The King,” Fusco tried to look over his fake wife’s shoulder but she kept turning to block his view. 

Tinswell walked up to the front of the small stage and looked to both Shaw and Fusco. “Actually, I’ll pick the song. A song that hopefully reflects our inner joy and journey…something that we might need expressing,” Tinswell reached out her hand to take the tablet from Shaw, “Lionel, I think you have enough masculinity in your life…let’s channel your feminine side.”

“Uh, I’m not sure I want to see that,” said Shaw with a scrunched up face. 

“Ditto,” said Reese from the table. 

“A queen instead of a king,” Tinswell’s face lit up and she looked to have entered a song choice on the tablet. 

“Queen, nice I love them. Give me We Are The Champions,” Fusco said slapping his hands together. 

“A queen, Lionel…a true feminine ground breaking woman,” Tinswell reached over and patted Fusco’s shoulder, “And she shares a similar hairstyle to you, well her 80s look.” Fusco made a wildly confused face to Tinswell. Shaw and Reese looked to each other and shrugged. 

“Actually, my husband has a secret love for disco,” Shaw spoke up just case she could really get Fusco good with an absurd song choice. 

“Disco? Shaw, that’s a new low even for you,” whispered to his fake wife out of earshot of Tinswell.

“Yes, that genre is here,” Tinswell squinted at the tablet scanning over the song titles again, “Oh, I love that one…and that one…” the therapist then closed her eyes and tilted her head singing softly, “…I’ve always dreamed I found the perfect lover…enough is enough…hmmm,” she then opened her eyes, “Got taken away to the past briefly.” Tinswell then grabbed onto one of Fusco and one of Shaw’s hands, “My apologies for not staying present. Okay, back to you Lionel and your song.” The therapist kept scanning then called over Joan to consult a list. “Yes, I think something with a bit of a fight in it.”

Fusco thought that sounded promising, he was terrified since Shaw suggested disco. 

“Still going with my original queen choice for you, what a delight. You both share hair attributes and a love for disco,” said Tinswell while she walked over to cue up the song. Fusco made a huge grimace face to Shaw. 

The detective groaned as he got up from his chair and headed towards the stage area and microphone. 

“Knock’em dead baby cakes!” Shaw hollered at her fake husband. 

The music started. Fusco squinted and read the scrolling lyrics on the monitor, along with the song title and original performer. 

“Barbra Streisand? Are you kidding me?” Fusco looked like a kid that just lost his favorite toy and was told her would never have cake again; he looked severely bummed out. 

“This is going to be painful,” said Reese, who appeared to already be scooting down in his chair. “Where’s Root? She’s going to want to see this.” 

Shaw stared up at Fusco with an evil glee shining on her face, “I think she’s in the bathroom. I’m sure the Machine will record it so we can torture Lionel for years,” said petite primary asset with almost a giddy response. 

Fusco grabbed onto the microphone so hard it looked like his knuckles were turning white. Tinswell and Joan were sitting at one of the front row tables next to The Roths, the younger couple, Betty and Fred. Everybody looked very intrigued to see what the auto parts dealer from Jersey was going to sing. 

♪“Ooohhhh…uh…mmmm…mmmm…”♪ Fusco turned his head, “They actually put these as lyrics?” The song started off really slow, sweat poured off the detective’s face. 

As the off key intro continued even Tinswell shifted in her chair and tried her hardest for a forced smile to Fusco up on the small stage. 

♪“Extraaaa…Extraaaaa…I’m in looove...I gotta thank my lucky staaaaaars aaaaaaabooooove…”♪ 

Fusco took a deep breath and powered on even though he had a sad puppy dogface going on. 

♪“Huuuuurry, huuuurry dooooon’t be late….”♪ The music was painfully slow at this point. Fusco wondered if it was going to pick up, it had to right he thought. It was stupid disco, weren’t all disco songs fast? Fusco then gave Shaw the biggest puppy dog sorry eyes and all the petite primary asset could do was look at her fake husband with evil glee in her eyes and hold down a gust of laughter.

Reese had a very pained expression on his face as his buddy continued on. 

Root was returning from the bathroom when she caught sight of Lionel on stage butchering a Barbra Streisand song. The detective looked truly miserable on stage, even more than when he had to walk on the hot coals or that one time when all the donuts were gone. Root didn’t like her nickname captain and fellow teammate looking so embarrassed and uncomfortable. 

Suddenly, Root jumped up on the small stage with Fusco, put her arm around his shoulder and leaned into the microphone with him and belted out the next line very loudly and very excitedly along with the detective just as the music picked up to a fast pace, ♪♪“I CAN’T WAIT!!!”♪♪ The hacker had a huge grin on her face while the detective looked at her like she was more batshit crazy than ever, however this time loony tune was helping with the tune and Fusco was so grateful . 

They both sang into the microphone, ♪“I gotta celebrate…It’s a fact…”♪ The hacker shook her hair free from her ponytail, swayed her hips and outstretched her arms to the detective in a silly dramatic gesture. 

♪“We got a first rate act…It’s evident…when we make loooooooove”♪ Root ran her hands up Fusco arms then ran them through his curly hair with a huge wattage smile at him.

Shaw and Reese turned to each other with a mixture of disgust and shock on their faces. Tinswell seemed to like this turn of events. Joan scribbled away notes on her clipboard. 

♪“The Maaaaain Eveeeenttt!!!”♪ Root sang directly to Fusco, who was getting more into the song now that he had a duet partner in a non-duet song. 

“Not sure Fusco and Root making love would be considered a main event,” deadpanned Reese to Shaw who continued to stare up at the stage and be completely dumbfounded by the goofy woman on stage who had tricked her into sleeping with her. Root was basically serenading a disco song to her, Shaw shimmied down a little in her chair. Yup, Shaw decided; she knew the hacker, she was going to sing this silly ass damn song to her; covers be damned. 

♪“You’re my every thought…”♪ Root turned back to Fusco dramatically and looked straight into his eyes while singing. 

♪“You’re my one attraction…♪” Root glanced and shot a quick sex eye dart to Shaw. 

The lyrics made Shaw’s stomach turn a little, or maybe it was the bar food that was making her feel queasy. 

♪“You must be heeeeeeeaven sent, you give me so much satisfaction…”♪ Root turned her head slightly and did her trademark non-wink to Shaw emphasizing the word ‘satisfaction’, however she also glanced to Reese in case Tinswell was watching her too closely. 

Fusco was really getting into the song now; he swayed his hips more and snapped his fingers. Root was bouncing all around the stage with him; her luminous hair flowing in multiple directions. Fusco even belted out a backup singer line, ♪“You’re the one!”♪ Pointing at Root and then to his fake wife. He yelled out to Shaw, “You’re the one baby cakes!”

Shaw did her best fake plastic smile where she showed her teeth but most people couldn’t tell if she was smiling or about to bite the head off of someone. She then did slide even further down in her seat a little; she wished she had her hoodie to pull over her head. 

“Shaw, your husband is singing his heart out to you,” Reese leaned over and whispered to his fellow primary asset. Shaw wanted to smack him. 

“And your wife to you,” Shaw mumbled out so only Reese could hear through her gritted teeth. 

Reese looked over to Shaw and gave her a warm smile; he knew Root really was singing to Shaw. The hacker wasn’t even acting up on the stage. He wasn’t sure how his fellow primary asset was going to take this over the top show of affection, which thankfully was hidden to most people. 

Then Tinswell shouted over the music, “Sammy, smile with your eyes.” The therapist smiled warmly at Shaw but all the petite firecracker could think about was smashing the karaoke machine into bits. If the karaoke machine was smashed and ruined then this horrid cow screeching would stop and then she wouldn’t have to sing either. 

♪“You make life worth fighting for…you’re the ooooooooone-aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh. Cause there’s nobody quite like yoooouuuuu!!! Sweetie, you’re the one”♪ Fusco and Root sang to each other with huge goofy smiles across their faces. 

“This must not be big Streisand song,” Reese leaned over and said to Shaw. 

“It’s from the movie The Main Event,” Shaw replied back while keeping her eyes glues to the stage, a train wreck with so much tone deaf carnage she couldn’t look away. 

“Didn’t figure you for a Babs fan Shaw,” Reese shot back with a smirk. 

“The movie is about a boxer Reese,” Shaw snapped back, “Plus, they just sang the movie title.” 

“Sounds like more romance than boxing. I’m guessing not like the Rocky movies?” asked Reese.

Shaw rolled her eyes. 

♪“Extra! Extra! I’m in love! I gotta thank my lucky stars aaaaabooooooove. Hurry, hurry don’t be late. I can’t wait. I gotta celeeeeeebrate. It’s a fact, we got a first rate act. It’s evident when we make looooooooove….The Maaaain Eveeeent!!!”♪

“I’m not sure how much more I can take with them singing about making love,” Shaw said to Reese.

“Are you jealous Shaw?”

“No, I’m going to hurl,” Shaw did look uncomfortable. “Can you imagine the mental imaginary of those two?” The petite primary asset pointed to the small stage. 

Reese shook his head as if a shiver went up his spine. “Good point.” 

♪“Fight! Fight! Fight! Come on and fight, fight, fight!! Fight for what you want, Fight for what is real,”♪ sang out Fusco and Root while making punching gestures to each other while continuing to bounce up and down on the small stage. 

“If only this was a simulation,” Shaw said with a pained expression on her face. Reese looked over and nodded to her. 

♪“Fight to keep the one you love, If love is what you feeeeeeeeeeel”♪

“I think the feeling is more like creepy or repugnant,” Shaw waved over the waitress for a refill on her whiskey, she gestured with her fingers to indict four glasses were needed. It was hard for the waitress to hear over the screeching from the small stage. 

♪“Aaaaaaand Loooooooove, don’t try to KICK me when I’m down!!”♪ Root stole a look to Shaw who squinted back at her. 

“I wish someone had knocked or kicked me out so that I didn’t have to listen to this any longer,” whispered Reese to Shaw. 

Finch, Zoe and Bear entered the beach bar off to the side, looking on with great confusion and concern. Reese had not been overly thrilled when Zoe’s cover had to be extended so the only logical explanation was that she was the fiancée of Harold’s. 

“Oh my,” said Finch when he looked up at the small stage and saw two of his teammates belting out a disco song. “This whole retreat is literally the ultimate torture for an introvert.”

“I kinda had a feeling Fuco would be a good singer,” replied back Zoe as the trio slowly wandered over and took a table on the outskirts but still close enough unfortunately to hear the scream singing from the small stage. “I’m not sure about Root, she’s much better suited to hacking.” 

♪“Looooooove-aaahhhhhhh, you’re gonna give up without a sound,”♪ Root and Fusco kept belting out. 

Bear tilted his head, it almost look as if his ears were in pain. 

Fusco looked at the screen, pointed to Root then pointed back to himself, then only Fusco sang taking the role of backup singers, ♪“Keep it comin, Keep it comin!”♪

Then Root sang, ♪“Look out, kids cause love is a comin’,”♪ and she looked out to Reese and Shaw. 

Fusco now had gone into a punching and kicking dance move, ♪“Keep it going, Keep it going!”♪

“How did Fusco become a backup singer on his own song? That’s not fair. Root can sing ours too then,” Shaw crossed her arms across her chest and glared at the small stage and her two idiotic teammates performing. 

♪“Come a knockout, so put up your dukes and fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggght-aaaaaaahhhhhhhttt,”♪ Root looked directly at Shaw. 

Shaw whispered to herself, “Oh, I’ll knock her out all right.” 

Joan glared at both of them and scribbled notes violently on her clipboard; she caught the eye contact between the two women; that wasn’t normal eye contact. That eye contact had major subtext the assistant thought and scribbled down in her notes. 

♪“Extraaaaaa…Extraaaaaaa…I’m in looooooooove…”♪ The music slowed down. Root and Fusco switched to soft singing and they were both clearly out of breath. Root turned to Fusco and sang directly to the detective. Shaw inwardly let out a sigh of relief that Root didn’t sing that line directly to her. 

Tinswell was certainly getting into the groove even though she meant this to be a solo activity. The therapist stood up and clapped her hands with a look of pure joy on her face while she danced. 

♪“Huuuuuuurry, huuuuuuurry dooooon’t be laaaaaaaaaaate…”♪

Then boom the music picked up the pace and back to the fast paced disco beat with the two singers jumping up and down. 

♪“Cause I can’t wait!! I gotta celeeeeeeebrate. It’s a fact, we got a first rate act. It’s evident when we make looooooooooove-ahhhhhhhaaaahhhhhhhhaaaahhhhhhaaaaaaahhh”♪

Fusco once again took the role of backup singers while giving Root the solo, ♪“Hurry, hurry don’t be late!!”♪

♪“I can’t wait! I gotta celeeeeeeebrate. It’s a fact, we got a first rate act it’s evident…”♪ Root sang out loudly, mostly on key; missing a few major ones here and there. However, by this time the hacker and the detective had won over the audience. Tinswell clapped and whistled for them. 

“You might want to brace yourself, long refrain coming up,” said Shaw to Reese, she wished she had her wax ear plugs from last night. 

♪“When we make loooooooooooooooooooooove….the maaaaain eeeeeeeveeeeentaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhaaaaaaaahhhhhh”♪

The refrain indeed seem to stretch out for an almost unbearably long time with both Root and Fusco taking mini breaths and continuing to sing until the karaoke machine told them to stop singing. Bear tilted his head and whined a little at the high octave screeching from his human teammates. The canine teammate then hid under a chair. 

Despite the odd sounds coming from the stage it was hard to not be charmed by the two mismatched people singing giving their best go at a very difficult song to sing.

For the rest of the fade out of the song, Fusco and Root did a pretty seamless job of alternating lyrics between backup singers and main solo, almost as if they had practiced this part before. 

When Root and Fusco walked off the small stage, Tinswell congratulated and hugged them. Fusco headed towards the bar to get some drinks, Reese got up and went over to help him. Root returned to their respective tables, she sat next to Shaw and leaned over out of breath with sweat pouring off her. 

Shaw scoffed as Root stared at her, “You think I’m going to put my mouth on the mouth that sang like that?” Shaw wasn’t asking a question, she already knew the answer. Yes, she was going to put her mouth on a mouth that sang like that and she wanted to right now. Yet, she needed to keep her cover up and it was too much fun to tease Root. 

“Uh huh,” Root licked her lips and lustily stared after Shaw’s lips, “and your mouth can go many places besides my mouth.” Root put her hand on Shaw’s thigh. The hacker smirked because she was pretty sure she heard her favorite primary asset’s breathing quicken and her eyes darken. 

Reese and Fusco came back to the table with drinks. 

“Sweetie, what song are you going to sing?” asked Root while she sipped on her fruity cocktail in a huge pineapple. 

“I’m not singing,” growled out Shaw as she grabbed her beer and knocked it back, not bothering to remove Root’s hand from her thigh. 

“I wasn’t talking to you Sweetie, my other Sweetie,” Root smiled over to Reese and squeezed Shaw’s thigh, digging her fingernails in a little. 

“The Machine better pull all electricity to this island or have Samaritan agents shoot me before I go up on stage. Me and Shaw,” Reese actually put his fist up and Shaw bumped it. 

Root and Fusco raised their eyebrows to each other then clicked their glasses together. “Well, Lionel in some areas you and I are tougher than the Mayhem Twins.” 

They both took sips from their drinks, then Root added with a sly smile, “I bet the bar here can just replay Shaw’s performance from the other day on a big screen and that would make Tinswell happy.”

Shaw rolled her eyes and Reese squinted his eyes at his fake wife. 

“Looks like the doc is busy, let’s go check in with Finch and Zoe,” said Reese, so Root followed behind her fake hubby and walked over to where Finch, Zoe and Bear were seated. “Finch, any updates?” The tall primary asset instantly put his hand on the back of Zoe’s chair. 

“Combing through the data on the drone proved to beneficial. We found extensive drone footage of one area over the ocean again and again, the area above the underwater sea cables. The area has to be target. I’m just not sure if the drones are going to destroy it from up above or if there’s a plan to destroy it from below.” Finch was talking discreetly as he could while sipping on a pina colada. 

“And we still don’t know who exactly is behind the possible technology blackout,” Reese said seriously. 

Root bent down to pet Bear, since the singing had stopped momentarily he had crawled out from under the chair. Root then noticed that Tinswell and Joan were headed towards them, she decided to try and intercept the whole exchange. 

“Dr. Tinswell, do you know Mr. Harold Bushtit from the resort?” asked Root, she put one hand on Tinswell’s arm and the other on Joan’s arm. 

“I have not had the pleasure yet, hello Mr. Bushtit,” smiled Dr. Tinswell warmly to Finch. 

“We were fortunate enough to meet Harold Bushtit and his fiancée Zoe here by sheer accident the other day at the resort,” Root looped her arm through Reese’s arm, then held onto his hand, “We felt like we bonded with them straight away, right John?” Root’s fake hubby had a pained expression on his face he was desperately trying to conceal. 

“Very nice to see the two of you again,” Reese said while watching for Zoe’s reaction to being pulled further into the fake couples charade. 

“Dr. Tinswell, I just had an idea,” Root’s face lit up as if she just won the lottery, “As a wedding present to Mr. Bushtit and his fiancée Zoe could John and I sponsor for them to join us for some couples therapy exercises?” asked Root in her best, most completely charming disarming way to Tinswell. Joan eyed Finch and Zoe warily while making notes on her clipboard, then Root reached and grabbed her hand in excitement and the assistant’s eyes softened to the tall brunette. 

Tinswell’s face lit up, “Of course! No need to sponsor them, maybe a pro-bono sort of case. A wedding gift of marital stability; we would be delighted for the two of you to join us for the rest of our sessions,” Tinswell went over and hugged Finch, who maintained a very stiff posture; then Zoe who was softer but in shock from this new development. Tinswell and Joan then walked away, headed back to talk to the other couples. 

“Root, what the hell are you doing?” asked Reese of his fake wife. 

“Relax John, this way you get to spend more time with Zoe. And Harry can get a taste of what he has been putting us through,” smirked Root to Reese then over to Fusco, she wondered where Shaw had gone off to. 

Suddenly, Tinswell was back on the microphone. “One last song everybody, we have a new addition to our sessions, soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Bushtit. And I’ve heard that Mr. Bushtit has a classic he likes to serenade everyone with on special occasions, so please Mr. Bushtit come to the stage and enlighten us with your beautiful rendition of 'We’re Not Gonna Take It',” Tinswell said honestly and genuinely clapping her hands and motioning for Finch to join her on the small stage. 

Root looked around and saw Shaw strolling back over to their area with a shit eat grinning on her face, she stood next to Root and leaned over, “The man thinks he’s going to make us endure all these therapy sessions and get out scot-free, not on my watch.” 

“Thank you, Sweetie,” Root beamed at Shaw. If no one was watching she would have smooched the petite primary asset hard, yet Joan was always on guard concerning their actions in particular. 

Fusco did a light smack on Shaw’s buttocks, “Way to go baby cakes.” 

There was literal steam coming out of Shaw’s ears, this time she was definitely going to knife her fake hubby. The petite primary asset raised her arm just as Root pulled Fusco out of Shaw’s harm. 

“Lionel, do you want to lose a hand before we leave the island?” Root asked seriously to the detective. 

“Thanks Shaw for not throwing me under the karaoke bus,” Zoe said warmly to Shaw with a smile, hoping to also calm down the homicidal look in the shorter woman’s face toward her fellow teammate.


	16. Scavenger Hunt Therapy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much reading and the comments for this long winded fluff :-) LIfe and work has been getting in the way, despite signing up for the Nano challenge - hopefully soon I can write more and wrap it up. Thank you sooooooo very much to T_Ninja for her invaluable feedback, brilliant ideas and amazing support! Have y'all read her 'A Pirate's Life for Me'?? Completely wonderful!!!

The team barely had time to catch their breaths and change their clothes to meet by the resort swimming pool for another round of physical therapy session. 

Reese and Root were lounging on beach chairs sipping fruity cocktails, the tall male primary asset seemed to be really getting more into the spirit of the work vacation. He actually seemed to be relaxing a little, still on alert for any possible danger. Team Rocket waited for the other couples and teammates to arrive. Since Root had been tardy to the first session of the day, Reese had grabbed her elbow to make sure she didn’t follow Shaw to go change clothes. He wasn’t positive that Shaw was in Root’s room this morning, yet he was pretty positive. He thought it would be really good for Shaw to finally act on actions he could sometimes see her stop in regards to Root. And well for Root, she might be even more annoying in a super psycho happy way for a while if she finally landed the petite primary asset, however that was something he would very much like to see after all the hard and dangerous work they had been through as a team. And just because they work in the dark like he had told Shaw one time, doesn’t mean they have to walk alone; and he sincerely hoped his two female teammates figured that out one day. 

“Well, look at that,” Root pointed out to Reese that Finch and Zoe were walking towards them in their swimming suits. The hacker couldn’t stop a goofy smile while watching the awkward duo head towards them. 

“Might not have been such a bad idea after all,” Reese put his fruity cocktail drink to click with Root’s who beamed out a smile to him. 

Finch was nearly blinding everyone with his pasty white skin in his long board swim trunks no doubt hastily just bought in the souvenir store of the resort. Zoe looked elegant as always in a demure one-piece bathing suit that complimented her whole body, especially her breasts; which didn’t go unnoticed by Reese or Root. 

“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Bushtit welcome to the pool party,” even though Root had her sunglasses on, her eyes were sparkling with glee having roped Harry into a therapy session; Zoe was a bonus for John. 

“Can you just call me Zoe,” the fixer smiled at Root and sat down on the end of Reese’s long lounge chair. “And not add the Bushtit.” 

“Bushtit has such a nice ring to it though,” Root gave back a slightly evil grin to Zoe, “the name contains two of my favorite things,” the hacker leered over at Shaw who just happened to be walking up with her fake husband. Root lifted up her head because she loved watching Shaw walk around in a bikini; it was glorious parade that aroused all her senses. Even though both women were wearing sunglasses, they were only looking directly at each other. Shaw noticed that Root had put back on her red bikini and she just wanted to tear it off again. 

Fusco was in long board shorts just like Finch who he patted on the back when he got close enough, “Glasses, I liked how you sang for two minutes then just stopped abruptly, walked off the stage and said, ‘That’s all I know’. I should have done that,” Fusco ribbed Finch. 

“And what deny us hearing Root harmoniously murder a Barbra Streisand song? That wouldn’t have been any fun,” Reese deadpanned to the detective. 

“I didn’t murder that song. Maybe only shot the song in the kneecaps,” Root said with a wink to the detective. 

“No, you zip tied it, machine-gunned it down and then launched about twenty rockets on it,” added Shaw as she stood over Root, leering at the hacker under the guise of her sunglasses. 

“Well, we can’t all be such talented karaoke singers like you Shaw. Care to show us once again how it’s done,” Root looked up at Shaw while licking her lips. 

Shaw sat down on the end of Root’s long lounge chair; she threw a tube of sunscreen in the hacker’s lap who smiled at her. Root sat up completely and scooted a bit further down the chair to reach Shaw better, not really noticing that by leaving her legs on the chair that it looked like the shorter woman was almost sitting between her legs. Root squeezed out the sunscreen and started rubbing it all over Shaw’s back, really massaging her shoulders and neck. Root made sure to get under Shaw’s straps as to not have an unruly tan line. Shaw put out her hand for some sunscreen, which Root squirted out in her hand and she started rubbing it on her arms. 

“Don’t forget your legs, unless you want me to do the honors,” Root leaned into Shaw’s ear and whispered thinking back to just as few days ago when she could only dream of having the petite firecracker between her legs and getting to kiss her. Shaw didn’t want to admit the goose bumps that were popping up on her arms and legs with the hacker touching and breathing into her ear. Root continued rubbing and massaging Shaw’s back and neck, slow and hard lost in thought of being alone with her petite primary asset again. They needed to be alone again and soon. The hacker was pretty sure they both had an ache in their lower regions because of John’s interruption this morning. Shaw enjoyed the massage by rolling her head back and forth. They were both in a daze administering and receiving the sunscreen rub down that when they looked up and saw everyone looking at them. They then both pretended not to notice each other at that point and pretended everything was completely casual. 

“What? Do y’all want our teammate here to get skin cancer?” Root scooted back up in her chair and laid her back and closed her eyes. “Harry, you should be thanking me. Can you imagine how much our health plan coverage would go up?”

“We have a health plan Glasses?” asked Fusco hopefully to Finch. 

“Anybody else want some sunscreen?” asked Shaw while throwing the tube to Root again and standing up. She scolded herself for momentarily once again getting lost when Root’s hands were on her body, or just even being near the hacker. 

“Lather me up Coca Puffs,” Fusco said while he sat in Shaw’s recently vacated spot on the end of the lounge chair. 

Root gave Fusco the same rub down and massage as she did to Shaw, as to not show any favoritism to certain teammates. The detective was surprised he got the same massage that Shorty did. Either his two female teammates were really becoming friends or they were totally doing each other on the side and didn’t want to be called out. He knew he was a good detective; he would solve this case. 

Tinswell arrived shortly and announced to the couples they would be getting into the swimming pool to do a floating exercise, which did garner a few moans from a small sector of teammates. Couples were stationed around the pool waiting for instructions. Both Betty and Fred for some reason were wearing arm floaties even though they were in the shallow end of the swimming area. 

“Now, it’s back to a more mental part of therapy, we are going to do floating exercises with each other,” Tinswell was in a full complete short wet suit get up as she waded out into the shallow end of the pool, “Please, join me in the water everyone. Betty and Fred, please remove the floaties as this is a trust exercise about floating. And we are in the shallow end so there’s no risk of drowning.” Betty and Fred still looked very skeptical. Tinswell sighed briefly then added, “There are lifeguards stationed as well.”

Betty and Fred didn’t like this and gave mean looks while they took off their arm floaties and got in the swimming pool. Tinswell instructed for half of the couples to come into a group talk with her. She instructed them that when their partners floated that after a few minutes they would switch off with each other to see if their partner noticed a switch. Darkened goggles were handed out to the other half of the couples so no one could cheat, they would have to rely on their other senses to take over. The darkened goggled floatees were to trust that whoever was holding onto them wouldn’t let them fall under the water, preferably their partner. The group of first floatees included Root, Fusco, Betty, Finch, Mr. Roth and the younger woman. Tinswell maneuvered between each couple and helped orchestrate a smooth transition from person to person. Root went through Reese and Zoe picking them out eventually pretty easily despite being blindfolded. However, she knew immediately when it was Shaw’s hand under back and she couldn’t contain a huge smile on her face. Which didn’t go unnoticed by Tinswell or Joan who paced around the pool writing notes on her clipboard. 

Shaw jabbed her finger in Root’s back to try and get her to stop smiling, which only brought up a giggle. 

“Are you okay Sam?” asked Tinswell leaning over Root. 

“Sorry, I just remembered a funny joke…there were kittens,” which got the hacker a few fingernails dug into her skin by her favorite primary asset. 

When it was time to move to the next person, Shaw very discreetly ran her hand along Root’s ass and let it linger a little too long, which brought another huge smile to the floating hacker. What wasn’t funny was the hard pinch Shaw also gave, which required a stifled yelp from the hacker but also darkened her eyes as she watched her petite primary asset move to the next person. 

Reese was practically holding Finch in the water as the less relaxed man tried to float but kept sinking into the water. “Relax Finch. Just think it’s like giving Bear a bath,” said Reese trying to get Finch to relax, who was a little anxious in the water and looked very awkward in anything other than a three piece extremely tailored expensive suit. 

“John, there is no talking. Send your calmness through your hands,” said Tinswell while helping Betty and Fred who were having a rough time of things with the floating exercise.

“I don’t think that’s something I want to see,” joked Fusco to Shaw. 

When the tables were turned Shaw found it very difficult to just float and be still without treading water also. Shaw knew immediately when Root had her hands underneath her mainly because the hacker kept one hand on her ass the whole time, slowly trying to nudge in between her legs. Shaw grinded her teeth squeezed her legs together to stop Root from playing around; the hacker would eventually get them caught if she kept up all this nonsense. Although, she found it more and more difficult to concentrate when Root was around in a bikini. Shaw had her eyes closed as instructed, taking the deep breathes, trying hard not to think about Root’s wandering hands. She slipped slightly lower into the water and before she knew Root scooped her up in her arms.

“Put me down,” Shaw grounded out slowly to Root, who was having entirely too much fun holding the petite firecracker hostage in her arms. 

“I felt you sinking,” Root continued to cradle Shaw, which was really infuriating the petite primary asset; however, she didn’t want to cause that big of a scene with the hacker because of Tinswell being near by and other innocent bystanders. “Dr. Tinswell? Should I lower Sammy back into the water or place her safely in the arms of her husband?” asked Root as fake innocently as she could, she briefly looked down at Shaw who definitely had a murderous look going on towards her. 

“Yes, good instinct Sam. Let’s transfer over your concern for Sammy to her husband directly. Lionel, can you come over here?” Tinswell motioned for Fusco to come over to where Root was cradling Shaw. 

Fusco tried not to chuckle because seeing his badass fake wife being held like a baby in Coco Puff’s arms was enough to send him into hysterics, however the pair didn’t look that out of place despite the silly pose. His fake grumpy wife did look good being in Looney Tune’s arms, especially since he could tell Shaw had one arm wrapped around Root’s back probably stabbing her in the back to let go. The detective approached the pair cautiously. 

“Now Sam, gently place Sammy in Lionel’s arms,” instructed Tinswell Root as all the other couples looked on; especially the other four teammates who watched on with concern in hopes that their petite firecracker teammate didn’t murder two other teammates who were holding her at the same time. 

Root smirked while she held Shaw, she ran her hands over her petite primary asset’s body under the disguise of handing her off to her fake husband. Shaw tried to hold down her anger while being transferred from the bane of her existence’s arms to her fake husband. Yes, she didn’t want to admit she much rather stay in Root’s arms, especially since they were both in bikinis so every time they moved there was skin on skin contact. Reese, Finch and Zoe looked on with amused yet concerned faces during the exchange. When the transfer was over, Shaw told Fusco to let go so she could try floating again. 

Once everyone had a go at floating, or not as in the case of Betty and Fred; Tinswell directed everyone to a new exercise. 

“While we are in the water we are going to practice something very advanced…tandem surfing,” Tinswell with her hands raised as if she hadn’t finished her thought yet. 

“Did she just say tandem surfing? Is she fucking nuts?” asked Shaw to Fusco. 

“We aren’t going to actually tandem surf of course, that would be too dangerous. Only skilled surfers could manage that beautiful union between two bodies. I do think we could practice the form and it might give us some intimate exercises to practice with our partners,” Tinswell motioned to Joan waiting by the side of the pool. 

“I don’t need any more intimate practice with Fusco,” whispered Shaw for her fellow teammates to hear but nobody else. 

“Hey, Shorty it’s not been fun for me either,” snapped back Fusco, then the detective leaned over just to Shaw, “Besides, I know you want to practice with Cocoofff!” Shaw punched Fusco in the gut so hard underwater where no one could see that he doubled over lowering his face and submerging half is head in pain, everyone looked at the fake couple. 

“Papa Bear, are you okay?” Shaw rubbed Fusco’s back then whispered to him, “Lionel, her name is Root.” Shaw splashed some water into Fusco’s face, and then slapped his back with a firm slap. 

While Shaw and Fusco were fighting, Tinswell had walked over to the stairs leading out of the pool to grab a full-length surfboard from Joan; she gently lowered it into the water. 

“Lionel, you and Sammy will be our first couple to practice coming together on the board,” Tinswell motioned for Shaw and Fusco over to the floating surfboard.

“I don’t think I could bare to watch that,” Root whispered to Reese. 

“Jealous?”

“No, I like Lionel. I don’t want to see him dead,” scrunched up her nose as she spoke of the possible doom awaiting the detective in yet another hands on exercise with his fake wife.

Fusco very ungracefully hoisted himself up on the board, making a lot of big splashes in the pool. Then Shaw was instructed to climb onto his back, making sure the surfboard didn’t tip over and dump both of them off in the pool. 

“We’ll just take a pass on this one,” Shaw said suddenly to everyone’s surprise, even her own. 

“Sammy, are you afraid of the water? Is that why you clung onto Sam for dear life?” asked Tinswell earnestly. 

“I’m right there with you young lady,” Betty blurted out towards Shaw, “these water exercises are dangerous.” 

Shaw gritted her teeth, of course she wasn’t afraid of water, she could out swim any of these idiots; she didn’t want to climb and straddle Fusco’s back. She was going to give Finch major payback for all this silly ass stuff. Although, yes on the flip side she gotten some seriously needed horizontal action with Root, so maybe only minor payback with getting his tea order when ordering and hiding all his posh vests. She wasn’t going to get any closer to being alone with Root again any time soon if she stalled on these silly ass exercises so she made her way over to Fusco and proceeded to climb upon his back while he balanced himself on the surfboard. 

“Hey, easy there Shorty. I know you don’t weigh much but be careful of your pointy joints,” whispered out Fusco to his fake wife. Shaw then took the opportunity to push her elbow into Fusco’s back while he grimaced in pain. 

Joan then lowered five additional surfboards into the water for the other couples. All the couples were instructed to follow Shaw and Fusco’s lead and lay with the man on the bottom and the woman on top. 

Root lowered herself onto Reese’s back, “Sorry, about this John,” she whispered in his ear. 

“Not as sorry as Zoe is going to be to Harold,” John looked over his shoulder to Root, “Shaw looks like she’s making Fusco pretty uncomfortable.” 

Before they could say anything or taunt them, the two fake couples saw Zoe and Finch exiting the pool. Shaw rolled her eyes, she knew Finch had gotten them out of this exercise, not cool she thought. 

Shaw looked over to Root and Reese, once again the tall duo looked like they were doing the exercise pretty effortlessly. Root was hanging over Reese, with her hands playing in the water. However, Reese did look pretty uneasy with the hacker draped over him; Shaw didn’t want to acknowledge that the expression ‘lucky bastard’ flitted through her brain. She didn’t like seeing the bikini clad wet Root laying on top of her fellow teammate, no matter how much he once despised her. 

Everyone’s task of balancing on the surfboard and not falling in the water was broken by Tinswell’s further instructions, “Let’s Paddle together. Let’s paddle back and forth from one end of the pool to the other end of the pool,” the therapist motioned her hand back and forth between both sides of the long pool. 

“In the deep end?” asked a scared Betty with Fred shaking his head in a ‘No’ gesture underneath her on the surfboard. 

“We will totally beat everyone here,” said Fusco with a challenging look in his eyes towards his teammates, “Ready Buttercup?”

“Please, Lionel. We’ve got height and wingspan working for us, plus our speed,” Root taunted back to her teammates

“Oh, it’s on,” Shaw said as she furiously started padding toward the other end of the pool, “Two laps!”

“Go John Go!” barked out Root to her fake hubby. 

Before Tinswell could even say anything two of her couples were speeding off and paddling as hard as they could trying to beat each other. The Roths, the younger couple and Betty and Fred just stayed motionless on their surfboards. The other two couples competed against each other fiercely, they started causing so many waves in the pool that Betty and Fred started yelling at them, until Betty fell off her surfboard and Fred called out for Tinswell’s help. 

Root slid off her surfboard quickly and swam after Betty, pulling her over to the edge. 

“She only did that because you two were losing,” Shaw said to her fake hubby and Reese. 

“Whatever helps you sleep better at night Shaw,” teased Reese with a slight smirk to his fellow petite teammate. 

“I’m sure Coco Puffs helps too,” Fusco said and as soon as the words left his lips Shaw jammed her elbow hard into his back. “Okay, okay. I think you’re destroying my back nerves.” 

*****

After Betty was calmed down they moved onto their next exercise which was more hand holding. And Zoe and Finch were brought back into the exercise since it wasn’t physically demanding as Finch as said the last one was for him and his bad back. 

“I know we just did a calming trust exercise, however now we are going to do one very similar here on land,” said Tinswell while she pointed all the couples to stand facing each other on yoga mats once again. 

Root walked in front of Shaw and their eyes met, it was a cliché but painfully true despite the petite primary asset’s best intentions, she couldn’t not stare into the hacker’s big luminous spell binding eyes and feel her breath quicken. 

Tinswell instructed the couples to stand facing each other with their arms raised to their waists in front of them and their palms up to the sky. Then place their palms in their partner’s hands. Tinswell watched all the couples closely, really walking around and examining them hard. She walked over to Joan too and had her assistant make several notes. 

“I’m going to be very honest and raw right now, I hope we can all take it in,” Tinswell said very solemnly towards all the couples. 

The team looked to each other then back to Tinswell, whose eyes were scanning all the couples. 

“There is one couple in this room that does not love each other at all. They are just co-workers and very inefficient co-workers at best. Their energy is completely off, they will never succeed in business together.” Tinswell seemed very sadden by this revelation, she didn’t linger on any one couple, letting everyone to speculate on which pair it might be.

The six teammates all discreetly looked at each other; obviously it was one of them. Without words being spoken everyone seemed to gesture to Fusco and Shaw who both scoffed and turned towards Zoe and Finch. Meanwhile, Root and Reese smiled to each other, smugly thinking it couldn’t be them at all. 

“There is one couple in this room that have a love so strong that I rarely see…it’s very…very…rare. And I hope the two people involved continue to honor this rare bond because bonds…and love like that…doesn’t happen that often,” Tinswell was moved to tears on this revelation, again the six teammates all discreetly looked at each other. Then they all looked between the other three couples, mainly the younger one and Betty and Fred. 

“Betty and Fred, called it,” whispered Shaw to Root. The hacker had a slight melancholy look on her face, could she and Shaw be the couple who don’t work well together. Well, technically they aren’t one of Tinswell’s couples so she’s probably thinking of Shaw and Fusco the hacker kept musing. It couldn’t be her and John; she thought they were coming off pretty convincing when she wasn’t flirting with Sammy. 

Joan stood off to the side taking her notes, the energy between all the couples felt a little different after this announcement from Tinswell. It almost felt like an Agatha Christie detective had announced there was indeed a murderer in the group. 

*****

There had been non-stop exercises all day; the teammates didn’t have any time to talk game plan involving the possible threats on the island. Before they could catch their breath, throw some clothes over their swimsuits and were instructed to a snack break on the beach before starting another exercise. Fusco and Shaw looked like a couple in one aspect, they were both huddled around the snack table stuffing as much food as they could into their mouths before the next exercise started. 

“This exercise we are going to see how well each couple works as a team to beat other teams. If being a team means splitting up to achieve certain goals, then that works too. All of you have to find what works best for you as a couple, as a team. Your most intimate team of your life,” Tinswell said to all the couples. 

There was something about the way Tinswell said the word ‘intimate’ that made Shaw kind of queasy. The therapist then went on to explain all the couples were going to spend the rest of the afternoon doing a scavenger hunt together. 

“There are clues all along the beach, at the resort and local businesses within a close range. You will need to find the clues, build and solve a puzzle. This is a timed exercise to see how well you work together with your partner under pressure.” 

Finch whispered to his teammates, “Zoe and I will keep watch on the other two couples, focus on the Roths.” Everyone nodded to Finch. “We were told since we were a late addition, there weren’t enough clues for us.” 

“True shame,” said Zoe very unconvincingly with a smile she couldn’t hide. 

Suddenly, Tinswell started the timer and instructed everyone to begin the scavenger hunt. The Roth man took off running fast down the beach after Tinswell hinted the first clue would be down the beach on a tree. The Roth wife stayed back letting it slip their strategy was for her husband to find all the clues then bring the pieces back to her, it would be faster that way; she would only slow him down. 

“That is a good strategy, honey bear you would only slow me down,” Shaw said to Fusco with a smirk to her fake hubby, “I’ll run ahead and see if I can find the clue and let you know.”

“Ditto, I’ll do the same. I’ll do the running,” replied Root to Reese. 

“Run after Shaw. I’m not surprised,” Reese whispered to Root. 

“Do you want to run down the beach with your bum knee?” Root tilted her head for added effect towards her fake hubby. He shook his head no in return. 

Root and Shaw started running down the beach, easily outpacing everyone else, but then again it wasn’t much competition as Betty had been allowed to walk and the younger woman wasn’t very athletic. They needed to catch up with Mr. Roth though; he wasn’t that far ahead of them. 

When they caught up to Mr. Roth he was looking at a coconut tree with a very confused face. There was a note attached to the tree with a riddle. Shaw read it very intensely, and then paced and forth a few times with Root watching her intensely. 

“Got it,” Shaw said with her face lit up. She then turned to Root, “Give me your shirt,” Shaw demanded of her teammate who gave her a hard raised eyebrow. Shaw then took off her shirt, standing in her bikini top and shorts waiting for Root’s shirt. Mr. Roth looked between the two women feeling a charged air between them. 

Root took off her shirt and handed it over to Shaw, looking over to Mr. Roth, which restricted her from adding an innuendo. The petite primary asset took one shirt in each hand, wrapped them tightly on her hands then started climbing the tree. Not very high up there were some odd looking coconuts. Shaw knocked five of the odd looking coconuts down to the ground. And then climbed back down the tree. Unwrapped the shirts from her hand and handed Root’s back to her. 

“I’m glad you protected those hands,” Root leaned into Shaw under the motion of putting her shirt back on. 

All three looked at the coconuts and saw pretty quickly they were plastic and they unscrewed revealing something inside them. Mr. Roth took his coconut and the other two to give to the remaining participants. He said he was going back to find his wife. Leaving Root and Shaw alone on the beach. 

They opened up one of the coconuts together. “Well, look at what Tinswell thought up now,” Root held put a small narrow tube like object with twisty letters and numbers, “It’s a cryptex, this is kind of cool. We need to figure out the code to open it to read the scroll inside.” The hacker’s face lit up while deep in thought trying to figure out what the code might be, “If Tinswell programmed these, they might have something to do with love or…”

Shaw grabbed the cryptex away from Root and smashed it to pieces with a large rock on the beach. She pulled out the scroll to read it. Root had an irritated look on her face. 

“You can figure out the next cryptex,” Shaw just shrugged while reading. 

“There’s not going to be two cryptex in one scavenger hunt,” said a slightly bummed out Root, leaning in to read over Shaw’s shoulder. 

“I’ll get you one for Christmas, geesh. Happy?” Shaw said nonchalantly while reading and starting to decipher the next riddle on the tiny scroll, completely unaware of what the real context of what she just said to a hopeful Root. 

Root did indeed feel very happy; Shaw was going to get her a Christmas present. 

“And will the note inside your cryptex be all your favorite kinks?” leaned into Shaw and whispered in her ear. 

Shaw then realized they were somewhat alone on the beach so she leaned back into Root, “Maybe,” she said while licking her lips and starring at the hacker’s lips. 

Root then tried to kiss Shaw but her petite primary asset stopped her, “We’ve got a lot of clues to find, c’mon.” Shaw actually grabbed Root’s hand and pulled her along the beach. After, an hour both women were looking very hot and sweaty from running around finding clues. They were headed back to the resort, the last clue heavily indicted it was hidden in the spa at the resort, specifically the couple’s steam room. 

When they arrived, they meandered through the spa walking past numerous changing rooms. They paused in front of the steam room. 

“Okay, we got the troll doll, the bandana, the tiki statue from the blind dog, the hug from the old woman at the fruit stand which was totally unnecessary…what are we looking for now?” asked Shaw not even grumpy, she actually looked engaged and somewhat happy. She grabbed the tiny scroll and started rereading the text over and over again to decipher it. 

“I thought the hug was sweet,” Root smiled adoringly at Shaw. 

“Okay, the next part says…” Shaw seemed so lost in deciphering the riddle she didn’t notice how hard Root was staring after her. 

“Sameen, do you like riddles and scavenger hunts?” Root watched her petite primary asset squirm a little and shift from one foot to the next. “You do. You’re enjoying this.” 

“No, I’m trying to complete this silly ass task quickly so I can go take a nap,” Shaw snapped back to Root, although as exhausted as she was from all these crazy activities and exercises what she really wanted was alone time with the annoying hacker more than nap. Or cleaning her guns. Or playing with Bear. She shook her head wondering how her list of desired off time pleasures could have gotten so out of whack. 

“She’s telling me that we are head of the other teams. We could take a little break,” Root tugged at Shaw’s shirt and moved closer to her, invading her personal space once again. 

Shaw had a look on her face that she was doing mental calculations and strategizing. 

“Okay, quick break,” Shaw looked around to make sure no one was coming through the hallways. 

“What do you want to do on this quick break?” Root asked while leering at Shaw and running her hand across her petite primary asset’s waist and landing on her ass. 

Shaw rolled her eyes while reaching out and grabbing Root’s hand to pull her along down the hallway, “You, nerd. Let’s go.”

Root blushed and felt even more heat course through her body and deposit in her lower regions, if that was even possible. 

Shaw tried to open several doors along the hallway; finally she stopped at one and picked the lock. She flung open the door to reveal a massage room with a long table and a couch. The petite primary asset then swung her hand attached to the hacker to push the door close and lock it. As soon as the door closed Root and Shaw started pulling on each other’s clothes and tearing at each other. They hit the couch and Root straddled Shaw’s lap. 

“Sameen…” Root breathed out heavily in between deep kisses with Shaw, they paused for a second; their mouths parted briefly but their lips almost touching, “…I need you inside me.” 

“Uhh...Root…” Shaw unbuttoned Root’s shorts and slid her hand down into the hacker’s bikini bottom, feeling the warm wetness envelope her whole hand, “…me too.” Shaw couldn’t believe her ears; did her mouth just whisper that out loud? She cursed her brain for begging to Root, although she really did feel the need to have some part of the hacker’s body deep inside her at the moment. Once again, she cursed the island too; maybe there was voodoo involved. Was there Hawaiian voodoo? 

Root followed the same action as her petite primary asset; she slid her down inside Shaw’s shorts finding her bikini bottoms completely drenched. Shaw kept surprising her on just about everything on this island but then again she really hadn’t had the opportunity to spend this much time with her petite primary asset before. Sure there might have been longer missions, but not missions that trapped them all in close quarters for more than a week. 

Shaw stilled her moments, too caught and completely lost in what Root was doing to her. Her hand had a slow rhythm, however unable to match the hacker’s. She stayed deep inside of Root. Before she even knew it she was coming hard, not quite holding down a loud moan and tightening her hold on Root. 

Root thought to herself, so Shaw really liked being inside of her. Was her petite firecracker actually a little puddle of mess right now? 

“I…uh…” Shaw felt like her brain was short wiring, she felt like she couldn’t form a comprehensive sentence. Root stared at Shaw, she could see the confusion mixed in with something else her petite primary asset seemed to be struggling with, so she leaned in and kissed her. The hacker didn’t trust herself to talk in the moment; Shaw didn’t need words right now anyway. Actually, Shaw probably rarely needed words that much at all; actions always seemed to speak more clearly to the petite primary asset. 

Root was surprised again when Shaw returned slow, tenderesque kisses back to her. The hacker then had to squash some pretty big moans when her petite primary asset gained her footing and started up a vigorous pace of making her come as hard as she did. Root was taking huge gulps of breath to catch her breath when Shaw started kissing her again, when her petite primary asset captured her tongue and started massaging and sucking, Root pushed forward and maneuvered them horizontal on the couch. 

Then The Machine started talking, “Damn it, the boys are walking into the spa right now,” Root leaned down and kissed Shaw one more time and the petite primary asset returned it full force. They both reluctantly pulled away from each other and started dressing again, finding discarded bikini tops on the floor. 

They exited the massage room just as Fusco and Reese came into the spa location. 

“Where did you two come from?” asked Fusco surprised at seeing his two female teammates just appear. 

Root walked ahead, clearly The Machine was communicating with her and she needed some distance from squabbling teammates for a moment. 

“Huh?” Shaw looked as flustered as someone like the petite primary asset could get flustered. She looked up ahead and kept an eye on Root as she exited the spa location. 

“Hello Shortcakes? What are you stoned?” asked Fusco waving his hand in front of his fake wife’s face. 

“She’s not stoned, she’s rooned,” Reese smirked to Shaw because she was distracted by Root, and not to mention his two female teammates looked more disheveled than just running a few miles. They looked more like a pair of lovesick teenagers getting caught making out in the back of a car. 

Shaw shot Reese a death glare as she walked on following Root. 

“Seriously, was that a closet? You know my head’s going to explode if I don’t say something,” Fusco held Shaw back and whispered to her with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“One of the clues was in there…the Machine told us,” Shaw said walking faster to catch up with Root and Reese. 

“The Machine is helping you two cheat?” asked Reese, clearly his morals were above The Machine helping him cheat in a silly ass scavenger therapy hunt. 

“Please, that’s baloney. You two are all sweaty and rosy cheeked and…,” Fusco said while Shaw aggressively rubbed her cheeks and discreetly smelled herself. 

Root picked up her pace and headed towards the docks where the boat rentals were. She could see Joan off in the distance standing on the dock with her clipboard. The last clue must be there; maybe it was the finish line Root thought. Shaw caught up with Root, they both walked to the deck, they both noticed dark clouds looming overhead. 

“This isn’t looking good,” Root tilted her head up towards the sky. 

“Maybe we will get the night off due to the rain,” said Shaw while she examined the stormy skies. 

“We can only dream,” Root quipped back to Shaw. 

Suddenly, there was a crack of thunder and a lightening bolt off in the distance. As they approached closer to the docks, they could make out a struggle on one of the decks. Then they heard screaming and they started running full force. 

Out on the pier there were two tall guys harassing Joan, she was clutching her clipboard tightly as she screamed for help. Then one of the guys snatched the clipboard from Joan and the other man hit her on the top of her head. The one man pushed Joan off into the ocean, and then both men ran off the pier, jumped into a car and sped away. 

“I’ll go after the guys, you help Joan,” yelled Root as she started running towards the street where the car was taking off. 

“Why do I get Joan?” asked a irritated Shaw. 

“Because you’re the doctor,” Root yelled over her shoulder while continuing to sprint towards stealing a car to chase after the bad guys. 

Shaw tore off her shirt and shorts and ran into the ocean. She swam as fast as she could towards Joan. Luckily, Shaw found Joan before she sank too far down. She pulled her the annoying assistant to the surface and held onto as she swam back to shore. Just as Shaw could stand and pick up Joan, she could see Tinswell and others running towards them both. Shaw then carried Joan out of the water and onto the beach. She laid her down in the sand just out of reach of the tide. She made everyone give them some space. She checked the annoying assistant’s vital and then made a frown when she realized she was going to need to administer CPR to of all people Joan. Shaw thought who wouldn’t even appreciate it because it’s not Root. Shaw pumped her chest then pressed her mouth to Joan’s and blew air into the other woman’s lungs. She repeated this process until she felt Joan start to respond. Joan then started spitting out water and everyone applauded, Tinswell the loudest; so happy her assistant was okay. 

Joan struggled to open her eyes and when she did she looked up to see Sammy of all people leaning over her and dripping everywhere from how wet she was, glistening skin thanks to the sun and extremely toned arms and legs. Joan continued to notice water droplets falling in between breasts constricted by a black bikini top. Joan closed her eyes again so Shaw leaned down again; the assistant took this opportunity to latch onto the petite firecrackers lips again. Shaw immediately pulled away with a very mean scowl aimed at the nearly deceased woman. 

John and Fusco came running up on the beach to see Joan and Shaw locked in either a very brief kiss or CPR. As Shaw helped Joan stand up the assistant took the advantage and put her arm around Shaw’s shoulder for balance. She then leaned in and gazed into the shorter woman’s eyes. 

“I could use some help here,” said Shaw looking to Reese and Fusco. 

“You saved my life. You’re so incredible,” Joan said in a completely love struck teenager sort of way. “You carried me from the beach. I can’t walk, can you carry me again?”

“Looks like you got it under control,” said Reese with and smirk, “I need to go find my wife.” Reese then headed off towards the parking lot with more lighting and thunder coming through the stormy clouds above. 

“Don’t you dare leave,” growled out Shaw to Fusco, “A little help here honey.” Thankfully, Fusco grabbed onto Joan’s other arm to help carry the woman back inside the resort. Shaw did not want to be left alone with Joan, especially now that the annoying assistant had moved into handsy hero-worshipping fan. She had met a few those before, it become really annoying fast. Okay, so Root was kind of in that same category, however the hacker made hero-worshipping fan look good. 

As soon as they got Joan back to the resort and to the doctor’s office the staff was having an emergency announcement that the resort was in a lock down mode due to a tropical storm approaching. Guests were not to leave the property, the tropical storm was being reported as very dangerous. 

Just as the emergency announcement was ending Reese walked back into the lobby, he motioned for Shaw and Fusco to follow him. They went back to Root and Reese’s room where Zoe and Finch were waiting for them. 

“Finch, did you have any idea a tropical storm was going to hit so fast?”

“Not at all Mr. Reese, it seems very peculiar. I know weather is odd and unpredictable, but this particular tropical storm seems almost unnatural.” 

“I couldn’t catch up with Root,” Reese said addressing his team members, “She went after the guys that attacked Joan.”

“How bad is this storm? Do you think she can make it back to the resort?” asked Shaw to Finch. 

“I’m not sure, it all depends on where she ends up chasing those guys. Ms. Groves is very resourceful, I’m sure she will find a safe place to ride out the storm.”

Just then the electricity went out at the resort plunging the hotel room into complete blackness. Thankfully, it was only a few seconds before Finch’s battered operated lamps came on. 

“Glasses do you always carry around back up lamps everywhere with you?” asked Fusco impressed and surprised. 

“Only to destinations where power outages are a possibility due to inclement weather,” replied back Finch. “The hatch is full of battered operated lamps and many generators to keep everything running for quite a significant amount of time.”

Something clicked in Shaw’s brain, the hatch. She had a strong feeling, that if Root couldn’t make it back to the resort, for some insane reason she might go to the hatch. 

“Where’s Bear?” asked Shaw. 

“He’s at the hatch Ms. Shaw. He will be fully protected and safe there,” said Finch knowing how much the petite primary asset cared for their canine teammate. 

“What if one of the generators dies, he might suffocate,” replied back Shaw. 

“Ms. Shaw there are so many back up generators there would need to be over a hundred tropical storms at the same time for that to happen,” replied Finch trying to ease her mind.

“I’m going to go check on Bear,” Shaw looked at Reese who shook his head. 

“Not a good idea Shaw,” said Reese while he handed her a flashlight. 

“I’ll be fine,” and with that Shaw took off into a tropical storm to find the hatch and hopefully her hacker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Totally stole bits from Supergirl and Parks and Rec for this chapter. Uh, if you're going to steal/borrow, do it from the best right? I totally blame Parks Of Interest tumblr for forever linking Shaw and Ron Swanson in my brain :-) http://parksofinterest.tumblr.com


	17. The Stormy Hatch Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long interlude! Thank you so very much for the kudos and comments :-) HUGE Thanks to T_Ninja for truly wonderful support and feedback!

Root hadn’t been successful in catching up with the guys that knocked out Joan and took her clipboard. The tropical storm definitely got in her way. The torrential downpour made it hard to see anything. She eventually had to stop the car she had stolen and figure out the best place to take cover for the storm to pass. Obviously, the only place she wanted to take cover was in Sameen’s arms, however, the storm was making it impossible to get back to the resort. The Machine said it would be safer for her to ride out the storm in the hatch with Bear. And once the Machine had told her the team was safe at the resort it made getting herself to safety easier. Plus, she wanted to check on the servers and all the data the Machine had been compiling, there was something fishy about this storm.

As Root made her way into the hatch, Bear trotted up pretty quickly and greeted her. The canine teammate seemed quite happy to see her and she was happy to see him in return. She made her way to one of the offices and to one of the elaborate workstations to start talking to the Machine and figuring out what nefarious thing was going on. She could only faintly hear the storm hailing down in the secure hatch. She didn’t know how long she had been digging through information before she heard a noise coming from the main room. The Machine hadn’t alerted her to any intruders so the noise couldn’t be anything serious, unless the Machine was experiencing a glitch. Bear had been lying down in his dog bed in the corner of the office. Root got up to go check the main room and entrance just in case.

Root walked out slowly into the main room. She saw a shadow from the corner of her eye and went into full defensive mode. She lunged for the intruder and flipped them over onto the large couch. Before realizing of course who exactly she was landing on.

“Shaw!”

“Root. What are you doing?” Shaw stared up at Root with a scowl on her face.

Root looked down at Shaw, she was completely drenched from head to toe, literally water dripping off every inch of her body. There was mud caked in her hair, along with leaves and vines stuck all over the shorter woman’s body, some minor cuts scattered along her arms and legs with a little blood oozing out. Root thought Shaw never looked more stunning.

“Protecting the hatch and Bear of course from any intruders,” Root smiled down at Shaw as she stayed firmly on top of the petite primary asset. “What are you doing? The Machine said you were safe at the resort.” Root got a seriously confused look on her face.

“It’s important to secure the hatch and all the important stuff down here,” Shaw said even though it was a blatant lie. “Plus, you shouldn’t have taken off chasing those guys in the storm.” 

“Well, technically the storm hadn’t fully started yet, then I got caught out in it. Coming here was easier than making my way back to the resort.” Root looked down at Shaw underneath her, the mud caked hair, patches of grass and dirt smeared all over her arms and legs, the cuts and bruises; judging by this look, it took a lot of effort to get to the hatch during the storm. “You actually went out in the tropical storm to come here. Admit it, you were worried about me.” Root stared intensely into Shaw’s eyes.

“I was worried about Bear,” Shaw said somewhat seriously while Root straddled her on the couch. Her hands totally betrayed her though and very naturally placed themselves on each side of Root’s thighs, then trailing up to her hips and holding tight. The leather couch was slick from Shaw’s drenched clothes.

At the mention of his name, Bear wandered out from another room. As soon as he saw Shaw he trotted over to the couch and started licking her face and neck, with both his paws on her chest. Root took the opportunity to lean over her petite firecracker and start licking and kissing the other side of Shaw’s neck. Shaw was caught in between a Bear and Root kissing match, she thought to herself how the hacker was a terrible influence on this highly intelligent, skilled, trained canine; reduced to a sloppy emotional kisser just like the hacker. Then Shaw surprised herself by silently laughing at the kissing onslaught.

“Okay, you two enough,” Shaw gave a command in Dutch for Bear and he politely got down, Root would need more than a verbal command. So Shaw turned her head so she could capture the hacker’s lips, which only spurred Root on more and soon they were heavily making out. Root had taken Shaw’s upper lip hostage, not that the petite primary asset minded. Root’s clothes were wet now too and mud spotted from pushing so hard into Shaw. As soon as Root opened her mouth, Shaw thrust her tongue inside, hungrily exploring.

“Sameen you’re all wet on the outside,” Root tore her mouth away briefly from Shaw’s as she tugged on Shaw’s dripping clothes, “Are you wet on the inside too?”

“What do you think nerd? You and Bear have been licking me for a solid five minutes,” Shaw panted while leaning up and sucking onto Root’s pulse point.

“I think we might be stuck down here for a few hours due to the storm,” Root’s face lit up like a Christmas tree, full of glow, warmth and unabashed cheer and lust.

“A few hours huh?” Shaw didn’t even really ask a question, her eyes so dark they looked stormier than the storm.

Root bit her lip and nodded. She then leaned down to kiss Shaw again, capturing that top lip again. Shaw pushed Root off of her, pushed harder until they were both standing. They both circled each other momentarily before reaching out to yank off each other’s shirts.

“Glad you came to check on Bear,” Root smirked to herself; Shaw could hide behind their canine teammate all she wanted. Even if the petite primary asset only wanted to have sex for endless hours, Root still took as a plus that she braved the storm and found her. “I know Bear would take a bullet for you.”

“Damn right, I would do the same thing for him.” Shaw didn’t want to think that Root had already almost taken a bullet for her just the other day. She knew she would take a bullet for anyone on the team, and she might take a few extra for Root. Shaw reached up and traced the rough skin on Root’s shoulder where it was healing over the bullet graze from the other day. It was a few inches away from where she shot Root in their second meeting. She traced her finger up to the bigger, older scar. She then leaned and kissed the scar. Root stared back at her with big heart eyes, which almost looked like they were going to tear up.

“Your shoulder does seem to be a magnet for bullets,” Shaw said as her tongue reached and licked the old wound.

“It feels a gravitational pull towards your…gun,” Root continued staring at Shaw; she leaned to kiss those lips she always continuously wanted. She bit hard on Shaw’s top lip, pulled on it slightly eliciting a low moan from the petite primary asset.

Shaw opened her mouth immediately and allowed Root access to which the hacker took full advantage of, however, strangely only lasted about a minute then she pulled away. “Gotta check one thing,” Root went over to the workstation set up in the side office connected to the main room with multiple screens showing all kinds of data. She typed quickly on several different keyboards pulling up several different screens and scanning the information.

“Just had a thought, in regards to Joan’s clipboard and the storm,” Root only stared at the screens, knowing if she looked at Shaw she would abandon her theory and just put her mouth back on her petite primary asset and hopefully not take it off for at least a few hours.

“You think they’re related?” Shaw walked over to where Root was sitting furiously typing away. Her top lip stinging from Root’s bite, her whole body responding being alone with the hacker. She untied her hiking boots and kicked them off, leaving a trail of water and mud along the artfully stained concrete floor.

“Seems far-fetched…but then some of the best things appear that way,” Root continued typing with her brow furrowed in concentration. She took a pair of glasses off the desk and put them on.  
Shaw stood behind her, getting a little impatient. Not that she didn’t want to solve the case, it was just that they had this whole high tech hatch to themselves for a few hours; she didn’t want to waste it. She put her hands on Root’s shoulders and started massaging them. The hacker responded immediately, rolling her head from side to side, struggling really hard to keep her eyes open while navigating the computer screens.

It was hard enough for Root to concentrate being utterly alone with Shaw in a decked out high tech condo while a tropical storm raged on, even harder when the petite firecracker willingly started massaging her shoulders. Shaw’s strong hands were kneading Root’s shoulders harder and deeper with each stroke.

“As you can see right there, something’s off…” Root pointed at the screen for Shaw to take a closer look, which the petite primary asset did while also using the lean to place an open mouth kiss on the hacker’s neck. Root stared harder at the screen not quite believing what she was seeing, also not believing that Shaw was sucking on her neck instead of helping her figure what has happening. “…it appears half the world is without internet right now.” That statement did get Shaw to stop her kissing and sucking on Root’s neck.

“What?” Shaw looked up at the screens with a bewildered expression.

“Either the tropical storm damaged the undersea cable or it was used as a cover up for an attack, either way it looks like the cable is either destroyed or severely broken. And the worst news…” Root typed away and pulled up other graphics and code on the screen.

Shaw thought that if the hacker threw in an innuendo she might just strangle her, although Root would love it. “Again, what?”

“Right now the world is without…” Root looked up and stared at Shaw through her sexy librarian glasses, “…most of social media.”

“Geesh, nerd. I thought it was going to be something important,” Shaw went back to massaging Root’s shoulders, letting her hands wander down further, final destination being the breast area.

“It’s important if your pet is doing something cute, you have to vent a political rant or you just made your most amazing spinach blueberry quinoa salad. Did it really happen if you can’t post it?” Root scrunched up her face.

Shaw rolled her eyes. “Are there any serious ramifications from this?”

“Yes, as you know surprisingly amount of internet data is travels the undersea cables so having this one destroyed is cutting off other forms of valuable probably life threatening information. We need to get out there and fix it,” Root had her serious tone going now as she typed away and opened and closed multiple screens.

“Wait, right now?” Shaw still had her hands firmly on Root’s shoulders, with one hand inching much lower.

“No, as soon as the storm clears of course. Which the Machine says will be in approximately four hours and twenty seven minutes,” Root said as she got a far off look in her eyes. “Ah, thank you very much,” Root stared at the camera on the monitor and did her signature non-wink to the Machine. “Which will now be in approximately six hours and fifteen minutes.” The hacker looked very smugly at her petite primary asset.

Shaw wondered if Root just asked the Machine to possibly lengthen a fucking tropical storm so she could get laid a few extra times. Shaw couldn’t contain a smirk; she knew the hacker would absolutely do that.

“Are you saying the Machine can now control the weather?” asked a very skeptical Shaw.

“She might have fudged the controls a bit on a wind farm off the southeast shore,” smirked Root.

Shaw gave Root a stunned look, then stared hard at the camera in the monitor screen.

“I’m kidding. Although, the Machine said which I speculated, this storm was manufactured,” Root said rolling her head back and forth, urging Shaw on to continue the massage; she was getting close to ripping off her sports bra.

“Manufactured?” Shaw stopped her massage ministrations to pinch the bridge of her nose. “Sometimes I really hate computers.”

“Hey, if it gives people a few hours of peace and quiet then I’m all for a small manufactured hurricane, little power outrage here and there, nothing major with no one getting hurt,” Root shrugged her shoulders in a nonchalant way. “Although, peace and quiet isn’t really what I had in mind for you and me right now.” Root arched her head back to leer at Shaw who visibly swallowed hard.

Root stood up from the desk, immediately missing the warm, strong hands of Shaw on her shoulders. She walked over to the kitchen area where she dimmed the lights and grabbed two glasses, poured some top shelf whiskey from Harold’s alcohol cabinet for her and Shaw. Shaw downed the glass in one shot and grabbed Root’s head, kissing the hacker hard; no more computer work, no more computer talk, everyone can live without their social media for six hours, the petite primary asset thought.

Root broke away from Shaw very reluctantly to put kibble and water in Bear’s bowls, “What? You want another interruption?”

Shaw kissed her again, Root pulled away one more time with a small whine and then rummaged through some cabinets while her petite primary asset looked on in frustration and confusion. Root finally found what she was looking for. She then placed several light blue colored plastic mats around the hatch living room.

“What the hell are those?” asked an impatient Shaw.

“Pee pads. Again, letting Bear out to potty during a tropical storm is another interruption,” Root placed the pee pads strategically around the room.

“I would eliminate the words pee pads from your seduction vocabulary,” Shaw said with one raised eyebrow.

“Noted. What about potty?”

“Again, nerd. Kinda killing the mood. Let’s go shower,” Shaw reached over and tugged on Root’s sports bra to get it over her head, then did the same and headed back to one of the en suite bedrooms with a big bathroom.

Root didn’t think there were ever three words more seductive in the language coming from Shaw’s mouth then ‘let’s go shower’.

****

They found out that the shower head did not support very much weight when Root held onto it while Shaw thoroughly licked her clean. After a few neglectful minutes, where Root threatened Shaw with extreme tasering if Shaw didn’t finish her lick down, the petite primary asset found the valve and shut the water off in the bathroom. The bathroom was left with a mild flood problem, but thankfully there were many more bathrooms in the hatch.

Shaw carried Root into the bedroom with the hacker’s legs wrapped tightly around her torso. Shaw pinged and ponged off several walls with Root going full vampire on her neck, making their way to the bed, they slammed into one of the wooden sliding doors to a closet and it collapsed with their combined weight and force. They regained their footing and straddling with only a few scrapes and bruises before finally landing on the bed, leaving behind the broken door in several pieces during their sexual frenzy.

****

After, one long first strenuous round Shaw jogged out to the kitchen wearing only an oversized men’s long sleeve dress shirt, an obvious stash for Reese; she rummaged through the refrigerator. She grabbed a water bottle and chugged it, then snatched a protein bar and started shoving it in her mouth as she hoisted herself up to sit on the counter top.

Root sauntered into the kitchen wrapped in a bed sheet, went over to the refrigerator for her own rummaging. She pulled out a can of whip cream and shook it.

“Where are you planning to put that whip cream?” asked Shaw with her eyebrows raised to Root. “Why does Finch have so much whip cream down here?”

“Makes a good pancake topping,” replied back Root as she continued to shake the can while staring hard at Shaw.

“Okay, it does sometimes,” agreed Shaw, finishing off her protein bar.

“And it makes a good Shaw topping,” Root shook the can more and stood in front of Shaw.

“No,” Shaw pulled at the bed sheet Root was wearing bringing the hacker closer. She hooked a leg around Root pulling her closer and trapping her. Shaw then yanked the whip cream out of Root’s hand and threw it forcefully down on the ground; because of the pressure of the can and blunt force of the petite firecracker’s strength the can exploded when it hit the concrete floor spewing cream all over the lower cabinet doors and floor. The can sputtered around the kitchen floor before stopping.

“So we’re not the only ones exploding in here,” Root raised an eyebrow and then quickly bit down hard on Shaw’s neck causing the petite primary asset to cry out a moan and hold on tight to the bed sheet.

Shaw then lifted up Root and carried her over to the long table. For some reason there were some place settings on the table that were all smashed to the ground in a matter of minutes with Root and Shaw fighting over dominance on the table.

****

“There’s a big tub down here? Like a hot tub?” asked a briefly sated Shaw while catching her breath, sweat pouring off her body.

Root lifted up her head from in between Shaw’s legs. “Down the hall, near the gym.” Shaw pulled Root up and kissed her hard, wanting to taste herself in Root’s mouth. “This way,” Root grabbed Shaw’s hand and pulled her down a hall, “Think I’ll be a better tubmate than Fusco?”

“My guess is…marginally,” Shaw snarked, “At least there will be less body hair involved.”

Neither one wasn’t sure how it happened; they had been pre-occupied with each other and somehow a bottle of laundry detergent got knocked over in the hot tub. The hot tub overflowed with bubbles. The washer machine and dryer shared the same room as the hot tub, Root explained the bottle was in there because she was going to wash their clothes so they could put them back on; not liking some of the clothes choices packed away in the hatch. They closed the door, hoping that would hold the bubbles; the bubbles seeped through the door after a few minutes. By that time, Root and Shaw had moved onto the next room because the hacker had mentioned there were a few zip ties in the hatch’s stockpile and the petite primary asset thought they should check out the durability of the plastic handcuffs.

*****

The zip ties were cutting into Shaw’s wrists and there was a little blood dripping on the padded floor of the fully decked out gym room. Root had Shaw zip tied to a pull up bar rack with her feet barely touching the ground. Although, Shaw kept cheating and kept lifting up one foot onto Root’s shoulder where she pushed down hard angling for Root’s tongue to go deeper inside. Root reprimanded Shaw; by pulling away. Root then grabbed a free weight and lifted it up to Shaw’s face in a menacing way. The hacker got amused at how many times she could get her petite primary asset to actually growl and foam at the mouth from how close she brought her to edge then abruptly stop. 

“Root…” Shaw said in a very haggard, labored breath. 

“Use your words...Sameen,” Root gave Shaw a wicked smile as she ran her hands up the petite primary asset’s thighs, lingering on her ass then moving straight to her breasts. 

“If you don’t fucking finish…”

“You?” Root put her mouth on Shaw’s breast and gave her a playful bite. 

Shaw jerked her arm so roughly she tore apart the top metal rod of the pull up bar rack which went sailing and smashing into the wall size mirror on the adjacent wall with sharp, jagged pieces flying everywhere all over the gym. Both women paused momentarily before Shaw yanked on Root and pushed her down on a workout bench. Making sure to miss the big chunks of broken mirror pieces scattered all over the floor. She lowered herself onto Root’s hungry mouth. Shaw kinda hated how loud she got when Root finished her off by plunging her tongue deeper inside where she needed her. 

****

Shaw walked back into the bedroom from the kitchen to get some more water and snacks. She stared at Root sprawled out on her stomach naked on the bed with her eyes closed. Shaw had to admit the sight did make her mouth water, even after having tasted every inch of the hacker’s body over the last several hours. The petite primary asset had put on a pair of heeled boots she found in a closet; the closets in the hatch had an array of different clothes for everyone in case of an emergency. The Machine was very accurate in purchasing all their favorite clothes and shoes. Shaw had also thrown on one of Root’s V-neck t-shirts and her underwear, two could play the stealing clothes game. The petite primary asset had ventured out after many hours of vigorous non-stop intercoursing for a quick food supply jaunt. The hacker lifted up her head and watched her petite firecracker do a criminally sexy slow walk up to the bed while wearing the boots, one of her shirts and her black lace undies while sucking on a lollipop. Root could barely contain her excitement, as Shaw got closer; her bottom wiggled.

“Looks like you’re ready to sleep, don’t have the stamina huh?” asked Shaw as she placed one heeled boot up on the bed near Root’s head.

“Please, Sameen. I was just resting my eyes…the human eye can only take in so much beauty in one night. Your body has burned out my retinas temporary,” Root leered up and down Shaw’s body, licking her lips several times.

“Resting my eyes is…old people code for napping,” Shaw sucked hard on the lollipop and made a loud slurping noise when she pulled it from her mouth staring hard at Root.

Shaw leaned down more on her one heeled boot on the bed; which gave Root a great view to a specific part of the petite firecracker’s body she had been worshiping for several hours. The hacker lifted her head up and licked her lips looking up at her favorite primary asset. Then Shaw swung her other leg onto the bed and stood over Root, she lifted up a heeled boot and gently put it on the hacker’s back then added pressure. Root moaned out, there was no point in controlling the volume of her moans now; her favorite primary asset had already made her scream too many times to count during the last couple of hours. Shaw then lowered herself onto Root’s bare back, not sitting completely just squatting over the hacker. Root began to squirm underneath her, pushing up for more contact.

“I would be surprised if you can walk today,” Shaw sucked on the candy, pulling the lollipop in and out of her mouth hard with a louder slurping noise for added effect.

“You look a little wobbly yourself there,” Root said smugly thinking of the previous portion of their recent activities when she had Shaw zip tied up in some hard, comprising positions.

“Please, I’m not the one that passed out for 15 seconds,” Shaw thought back to the part where Root had actually passed out for a few seconds.

“That’s only because someone was choking me,” Root pushed up against Shaw again, wanting more contact and seeing if she could flip the petite firecracker over. Shaw stayed firm and solid, there was no flipping the petite primary asset. “Thanks for that by the way, that was a first,” Root wanted to add and hopefully not a last, but again she didn’t want to scare Shaw away or ruin the moment. Shaw was still here and even though there were no windows in the hatch it had to be morning by now. And it didn’t appear that Shaw wanted to leave any time soon, she still wanted more which Root took as a very hopeful sign.

“You want more?” Shaw said in between taking sucks on the lollipop.

“Absolutely,” Root felt Shaw lift up off her and then lower herself again this time pressing herself fully on the hacker’s back sans underwear. Root wondered how Shaw had taken off her underwear when she barely felt the petite primary asset move off her at all.

Shaw lifted up and then lowered herself completely onto Root’s back again which elicited a loud gasp from the hacker from the delicious pressure of skin on skin contact and the weight; also, she could feel how wet her petite firecracker was already again. Shaw was leaving a slick trail up and down Root’s back. Then Shaw got an evil glint in her eye as she took one of the icy chilled water bottles and rolled it up and down the Root’s back.

“Shaw!”

“Considering it’s almost dawn, I thought you might be thirsty too,” Shaw continued to roll the icy bottle along Root’s back despite her squirming and bucking, she then opened it and took a few big gulps then poured some of the chilled water over the hacker’s back which brought out a yelp.

Root surprised Shaw by bucking her off, the hacker could have surprising body strength at times. Root took one of the water bottles, opened it and shook it all over Shaw. The hacker then poured some of the water over Shaw’s lower regions, “You’re right, I am thirsty." Root then looked over Shaw hungrily. "For you."

****

“Let’s switch beds. You got this one all wet,” said Shaw as she unhooked one of Root’s legs off her shoulder and lowered it back down on the bed. 

“You do have that effect on me,” replied Root in between catching her breath and racing heartbeat. 

“And when you spill two entire water bottles all over the bed seems to also have the same effect,” said Shaw in a hurried tone while pulling Root by her ankles off the bed. She then gruffly pulled the mattress up off the frame and leaned it against the wall. “Maybe it will dry faster.” Shaw grabbed Root and started kissing her. “Let’s go to one of the other bedrooms.”

****

Before they made it to one of the other bedrooms, they took a detour into a large office housing several workstations and server racks. Root was just going to check on the internet outage and make sure it hadn’t gotten worse when Shaw started unwrapping the bed sheet she was wrapped up in. Before she knew it, Shaw had her pinned to the desk and she knocked a triple monitor display to ground, crashing into the concrete floor taking a server in the process as well. Despite the sound of the crash and the debris, Root grabbed Shaw’s wrist and threatened her with that damn karaoke performance again if she withdrew her fingers buried deep inside her building again to something she couldn’t control. And then when Root entered Shaw in the same way, the petite primary asset threatened the hacker if she disengaged as well, despite knocking over a rolling dry erase board that took down a framed drawing by Degas; thankfully only a very well crafted replica. 

*****

Bear pushed his face against one of the bedroom doors, he pushed until he opened it enough to walk through. He looked over and saw his two female human teammates completely passed out sleeping on a bed pretty close together. Bear then trotted over to Shaw’s side where her face was close to the edge of the bed, he leaned over and licked the petite primary asset’s face.

“Root, I need five minutes, then I’m ready for another round,” Shaw said in a very mumbled voice into a pillow.

Bear then went over to another end of the bed where Root’s foot was hanging off the edge; he gave it a quick lick then nudged it.

“Hmmm,” Root sleepily moaned out in her drowsy state, she wrapped her arm around Shaw’s waist and she moved across the short distance between them to fully spoon the shorter woman’s back.

“Root, no spooning,” Shaw groggily demanded; yet it sounded more like an empty threat.

“I spooned you pretty hard last night,” Root said groggily and placed a sleepy kiss on Shaw’s neck.

“You were also forking me at the time so that doesn’t really count,” despite her verbal protest Shaw did lean back to push harder against Root’s mouth on her neck and to give her better access.

“How about a six minute spoon?” Root kept kissing the shorter woman’s neck while pressing the full length of her body against Shaw’s backside.

“Three minutes,” Root said firmly.

“Deal,” the word was barely audible as Shaw had fallen back to sleep all spooned up in Root’s arms.

Before they both knew it, they were both sound asleep in a deep slumber wrapped up in each other’s limbs. 

****

Root stood at the state of art stove and flipped pancakes with an apron on and nothing else. Her hair was up in a messy bun, with long strands flowing down around her shoulders, which were littered with bite marks and her neck with new hickeys. She continued flipping pancakes, also keeping an eye on the bacon she was frying. She was so pre-occupied she didn’t hear the whole team enter the hatch and slowly get closer to the kitchen. Everyone stood shocked at the sight of their hacker teammate cooking breakfast in an apron and nothing else, thankfully all the front parts were covered.

“Hey gang, anybody hungry?” Root asked as if nothing was unusual about her lack of clothes.

A sleepy Shaw wandered out wearing one of Reese’s white shirts half open in her black boy shorts with serious sex hair, puffy lips from hours and hours of intense kissing, bruises all over her body, irritating fresh hickey’s up and down her neck and torso. Damn it, Root. She paused as soon as she saw Reese, Finch, Fusco and Zoe staring at her then going back to stare at Root. She looked at Root completely naked in the apron cooking breakfast and gritted her teeth. Well, she thought there was no way they could spin this situation; somehow a naked friend/co-worker pancake brunch didn’t seem believable Shaw thought.

Root piled up a stack of pancakes on a plate. As Root turned around her entire naked backside was showing to the team, she sauntered over to Shaw. Fusco watched Root with big wide eyes until Shaw gave him a death stare. Root handed off the plate of pancakes to Shaw as she passed her by and continued on walking to one of the bedrooms. Fusco stared after Root with his mouth hanging open; suddenly a pancake hit his face. Shaw turned around followed after Root down the hallway, leaving behind her slightly stunned teammates.

“Geesh Shaw, did the storm knock your pants off?” Fusco called out after Shaw, he couldn’t help ribbing his fake wife. He was having fun seeing his two female teammates caught red handed. He didn’t need to investigate any further, he’s never had a co-worker or friend make him breakfast naked so pretty proof positive that his two teammates were totally doing each other. He thought to himself ‘Way to go Coco Puffs for hanging in there' and 'Coco Puffs got Shorty for the whole stormy night.' 

“Ms. Groves? Ms. Shaw? After the two of you are uh...properly assembled, we need to speak on an urgent matter,” Finch called out after his two female teammates, while taking a quick survey of the kitchen. There appeared to be whip cream covering the lower half of the cabinets. Bear wandered out into the kitchen, he sniffed the cabinets then started licking the whip cream off of them. 

“Bear stoppen likken de kast,” said Finch while making a slightly disgusted, annoyed face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I totally stole a scene from 'Life', however in my defense I just wanted to imagine Sarah with Amy instead of the dudebro in my head :-)


	18. Underwater Fixin and Fightin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, for the long delay! Not sure this makes up for a long absence or if anyone is still interested – never written anything this long, so I gotta finish. Thank you so much for the nudges and comments! Y’all are so sweet!!

Bear continued to lick the whip cream off the cabinets while the slightly shocked team watched. Shaw turned around and headed back to one of the bedrooms, presumably following the bare butted Root. 

Shaw kicked the bedroom door closed with her foot while stuffing another pancake in her mouth. Root was in the midst of getting dressed, she looked to Shaw with a smug smirk on her face. 

“Didn’t the Machine warn you the guys were going to be here?” Shaw spat out in between chewing the carby delights. 

“Sameen, the Machine hasn’t been talking to me since you got here last night. I think she was trying to respect our privacy,” Root pulled on some shorts over another stolen pair of Shaw’s black boy shorts undies. 

“Yeah, we don’t have to worry about that anymore.” Shaw gritted through her teeth. Not that she was embarrassed to be seen with Root, just maybe uncomfortable with everyone seeing Root’s bare backside. And that said bare backside was on display right now as Root rummaged through the room looking for a top and bra; Shaw found she couldn’t look away. Shaw put the plate of pancakes down and walked over to Root, she leaned into the hacker’s personal space and inhaled deeply. Shaw had her nose buried in Root’s hair; the hacker stopped motionless enjoying the closeness. She leaned up, turned around and reciprocated by deeply breathing in around Shaw’s hair and neck. “Uh, you’re not going to take a shower before you go back out there? You stink Root.” 

“And whose fault is that?” Root had a wide smile, not being able to contain Shaw sniffing her, pressing her body up against hers and possibly inviting her to another joint shower. “You’re pretty stinky yourself Sameen,” Root roamed her nose around Shaw’s neck; not quite touching along in her hair while continuing to take deep quick breathes. Root lightly touched the petite primary asset in many areas with her hands but her nose kept ghosting her neck over and over again. She then unbuttoned the white long sleeve men’s tailored shirt and slid it off her petite primary asset’s shoulders. 

“Uh you smell like…” Shaw ran her hands over Root’s bare back, reveling in the skin-to-skin contact; after what was probably a twenty minute break from having her hands on the hacker, which felt longer. Her head was dazed, she knew they had to get dressed; the team was waiting for them yet all she wanted to do was kiss Root again. Shaw wanted her head examined, why did her brain seem so foggy? Maybe the jellyfish sting had morphed into a rare tropical fever that altered brain activity and functions Shaw wondered. 

“You…” right as Root said this, her hand dipped lower and she cupped Shaw through her black boy short undies, which caused the petite primary asset to moan and press her head against Root’s bare shoulder. “It’s a new musk scent, I’m a big fan.”

“Well, the others might not be,” Shaw managed in a ragged breath because of what Root was doing with her hand. She knew she had to pull away; she was already getting lost again in everything the hacker could bring out in her body. Damn it, now she had to find yet another pair of underwear. 

“Sameen…” Root whispered, “…we really don’t have time to clean up. Plus, our task involves getting wet again anyway.” Root moved her fingers in a circle motion now over Shaw’s hot spot. “Well, different kind of wet.” Root placed a sloppy open-mouthed kiss on Shaw’s neck, which brought out shudders from both of them. “So it’s best to conserve water and use it later.”

Shaw grabbed Root’s hand that continued it’s circular ministrations over an area that had received a lot of special attention in the past few hours and apparently needed more. She stopped the very pleasing hand and squeezed Root’s ass then slapped it hard, “Oh, there will definitely be a later today.” Shaw already felt an immense pressure in her lower regions and a large pool of moisture welling up, even though they just spent a whole night together she was hungry for more which was unusual for her. Shaw blamed the island and their silly agreement; plus, possibly the skills of the hacker. 

“Good to know Sweetie,” Root ran her hand down Shaw’s backside and squeezed her ass back in return with a hard, stinging slap to match. “Besides, why would I want to wash away my eau de Shaw so quickly?”

Shaw shook her head. She knew Root would have a silly ass lame answer and reason such as that for not taking a shower; plus, to punish the other teammates as well. She reluctantly pulled away from Root and rummaged around the room finding clothes to wear. “Nerd, stop stealing my underwear,” Shaw said in a tone that meant to be gruff yet came across as more playful. “I mean it.” 

Root found a black tank top in one of the dresser drawers; she threw it over to Shaw. She couldn’t help but stare at the stunning petite primary asset; it was still surreal to the hacker that she had just spent the entire night with Shaw. She was pretty sure she had the Machine to thank for that small miracle. They had work to do now though, she needed to pay back for the night she was given; as hard as it was to pull away from Shaw. She wondered if the Machine could stretch out this tropical adventure for at least a few years. 

As soon as they both found clothes, they followed each other out back to the main room where the team was waiting. Fusco was eating and frying up more bacon on the stove, Finch was going over something on a laptop setup on the kitchen counter while Reese and Zoe watched them walk in with smirks on their faces. Shaw just rolled her eyes at all of them; she followed Root out but made a move to not stand close to Root. 

“Ms. Groves, it is much better to see you with your full ensemble on,” Finch said while not lifting his eyes up his laptop. 

“What he means is that it’s nice not to see your bare ass Coco Puffs,” said Fusco while he grinned at his two female teammates. “You too wifey, although I’m guessing you’re her wife now.” Shaw scowled so deeply at him, he felt a shiver go down his spine. Yet he pressed on because teasing his fake wife was a lot of fun, despite bodily harm that may come in return. “What did y’all do trapped down here last night? Play cards?” Fusco couldn’t stop smiling. 

“I bet it was Texas Hold’em,” said Reese with a sly smile on his face. 

“Emphasis on the hold’em,” joked Fusco while lifting more bacon to his mouth, which was snatched away by Shaw with a harsh jab to his ribs at the same time. 

“Along with some good ‘ol strip poker,” Zoe chimed in as well, taking a look at Root and Shaw, who surprisingly were staying poker faced themselves, as if they were bluffing. 

Finch stood up from his chair with a serious look on his face, “We do have urgent matters to address if everyone is done with peanut gallery comments directed towards Ms. Groves and Ms. Shaw.”

Shaw and Root stole a quick glance at each other. The petite primary asset never thought she would be relieved to hear Finch breaking into a conversation with numbers talk as much as she was right now. Root of course, looked unfazed and acted completely like business as usual. 

Fusco smirked, “Well, you guys missed all the action last night at the hotel,” said the detective while he motioned with his hands. “It was pretty chaotic, the doctor and her flunky were running around everywhere trying to calm people down. That Fred and Betty were the worst of the lot.”

“Oh, there was definitely action here last night too,” Shaw said without thinking, then quickly gritted her teeth. Root had a stupid grin that spread across her face. 

“I bet and I don’t want to know by the looks of things,” asked Fusco quickly as he looked around the messy hatch. 

“I meant the storm caused a lot of chaos here last night as well…concerning you know the computers…and Bear…” Shaw stumbled with her words, realizing what she had said had caused a huge wattage smile spread across Root’s face and an actual blush appeared; which admittedly made the hacker look even more delectable and adorable. Adorable? Since when did she ever do adorable? Hot, scary, dangerous were all yeses; adorable? Okay, well the hacker while being adorable was also very hot, scary and dangerous. Shaw didn’t think she had ever met anyone who covered all those categories. It was hard to pull off adorable while also being dangerous and legitimately scary; yet Root managed it exceptionally well.

Finch walked over to the big long table, broken dishes crushing under his shoes. He put his briefcase down and as soon as there was any pressure on the table the whole thing collapsed completely on the ground with a loud crash. Everyone turned their heads and watched the table fall to pieces.

Root and Shaw shared a quick look to each other, so they might have used the table last night for a quick tryst before making it back to the bedroom on a snack run. Must have been that last dismount, Root did mention her tailbone hurting a bit afterwards as well, Shaw remembered fondly. 

“What happened to the table?” asked an exasperated Finch with a shocked and stern expression on his face as he turned to look at Root and Shaw. 

“Looks like you need a good carpenter,” said Root with an over exaggerated nod and dumbfounded look on her face. 

Finch shook his head in disbelief. He then looked around the hatch and noticed several areas were pretty rumpled, disheveled and just plain broken; quite a few things were actually destroyed. He did not want to know the reason for the inexcusable state of the hatch. He would assume his two co-workers got bored last night during the storm and messed things up to annoy him. 

“And the broken dishes?” asked Finch, looking between his two female teammates. He didn’t wait for an answer as he walked off to other areas of the hatch. 

“Did y’all feel the earthquake? I think it was caused by the uh…slight…volcano…eruption,” Shaw was a horrible liar when she wasn’t undercover sometimes, she awkwardly crossed her arms against her chest. 

“Does the earthquake also explain something that exploded in the kitchen?” asked an amused Fusco, “What is this…whip cream everywhere?” Fusco ran a finger along some of the cream that Bear didn’t lick off the cabinets. 

“Why is the mattress up against the wall in the third bedroom?” asked Reese, “Did the earthquake or volcano shake it off the bed frame and stand it up right?” He couldn’t help the sly grin on his face. 

“Do I want to know how the treadmill got broken?” called out Finch from the exercise room. “Or the smashed mirror in the gym?” 

“There are bubbles in the hallway from an overflowing hot tub,” Zoe said with a lopsided smirk. “That’s impressive.” She gave a nod to Root and Shaw, who tried to act as unaffected and breezy as possible during this sort of interrogation. 

“Is that my Degas painting with a tear down the middle? What happened in the office?” Finch’s voice started to become more and more agitated. 

“That was a replica right?” asked Root cautiously. 

“No, Ms. Groves it was not,” said a stunned Finch. 

Root looked a teeny bit sheepishly at Shaw who maintained a cold, blank stare. 

Shaw was getting uncomfortable with all her teammate’s questions, especially since they all pertained to last night’s sex escapades all over the hatch with Root. 

“Hey! Do you want to hear what Root discovered last night or not?” Shaw raised her voice over her fellow teammates. 

“Uh, Shorty I think we all know what Root discovered last night,” joked Fusco while Shaw shot him death glares with her eyes. 

Root almost laughed but then she saw Shaw’s very agitated face and decided for smoothing things over and getting on with business. After all, the team ruined her chances at morning sex so she was a little agitated as well, okay so they ruined her chances of a second round of morning sex. They still did have work to do and hopefully the faster they got it done right now, she could have a few more private moments with Shaw. And hopefully destroy some more furniture in the process to annoy Harry; although, she did feel kind of bad about the Degas painting. 

Taking her cue, Root started talking to the team. “Last night, I noticed there seemed to be a connection between the weather and the attack on the undersea cable. I think it was a diversion,” Root walked over to the workstation computer and pulled up some maps to show everyone. Shaw stood off further to the side with her arms crossed against her chest. 

Finch came up and stood by Root’s side, “I had the same thoughts Ms. Groves while monitoring things last night at the hotel where there was no earthquake or volcano disturbance.” He adjusted his glasses while he took a closer look at her data. 

“The increased wind mills,” both Root and Finch said at same time. Root gave Finch a small smile; which was not returned, understandable given the state of his hatch. 

“I’m sure you saw the same discrepancies I saw while monitoring them last night,” Root leaned forward on her elbows. 

“You were monitoring something else besides Shaw last night?” asked Fusco with a grin; Shaw scowled at him from a few feet away. 

“Yes, Lionel. Actually, that’s why I came here during the storm believe it or not. And Shaw came to check on Bear,” Root shot back to the nosy, mouthy detective. 

“Yeah, I think Bear is probably traumatized for life by the looks of this place,” Fusco raised his eyebrows and looked over to Bear who didn’t seem to care and continued to sniff around the kitchen for more whip cream to lap up. 

“Ms. Groves, did the Machine say anything?” Finch said rather curtly, hoping to get everyone to stay on the urgent topic. 

“Last night an undersea cable, the one we saw before was either destroyed or damaged enough to cut off a large amount of data…” Root continued while she pulled up some maps on the monitors. “Looks like large chunks of the country went dark, data wise.” 

Reese, Zoe, Fusco and Shaw looked on with concerned faces at the monitors displaying the graphs and data. 

“Yes, I saw the surges as well and the news reports. 37% of the country is without social media and not dealing well emotionally with the loss. Of course the bigger issue is the actual relevant data that is not being transferred right now,” said Finch as he typed on one of the keyboards with Root looking over his shoulder. 

“Did the Machine have any ideas on how to fix it?” asked Reese with a slightly concerned look on his face. 

“Just the old fashioned way,” Root said while still leaning over Finch and scrutinizing the data on the monitors. 

“Which would be?” asked Shaw, moving closer to the desk to stand off to the side of Root, but not too close. 

“Harry and I going for a swim,” Root said with a twinkle in her eye. 

Having picked up on why Root didn’t go scuba diving before, Shaw spoke up fast. “Well, you’re not scuba diving of course.” The petite primary asset had a very serious look on her face as she stared at Root. She didn’t know much about cochlear implants and scuba diving but she didn’t want to risk Root getting hurt that way. 

“Most likely we will have to pull the cable up to fix it, so not too much scuba diving. Just maybe a little dip in the ocean,” Root said while giving a small smile to Shaw. 

“I can fix it,” Shaw had a determined look on her face. 

“Sweetie, this requires more of a delicate touch that only Harry and I can provide,” Root wanted to reach out and touch Shaw’s arm, however, she also wanted to give her some space after their recent interrogation by the team. 

“These undersea cables can breakdown over time or even get partly destroyed by sharks and other environmental elements, this however definitely looks manufactured. We need to fix it immediately,” Finch said as he looked at everybody. 

“We also still need to find out what’s in Tinswell’s notes since that clipboard was stolen from Joan,” Reese said seriously, as he went to find supplies to load up. 

“Why didn’t y’all find out last night?” asked Root with a curious face to Fusco, Finch and Zoe. 

Fusco just shrugged, “The hotel being without electricity made getting around tricky. Joan was still mostly out of it after her scare. And when Tinswell wasn’t busy counseling all the guests on the loss of their bird chirping gossip app thing or the instant photo thing, she was consoling Joan after the attack.” Fusco explained as he looked around the hatch looking for something else destroyed to rib is fake wife about. 

Zoe took the cue, “I’ll head back to the resort and see what I can find out. I’m glad you two were safe from the storm last night.” The Fixer winked to Root and Shaw before leaving. Root smiled back at Zoe while Shaw rolled her eyes. 

After gathering all the essential tools they might need to fix the broken undersea cable; Finch, Fusco, Reese, Root and Shaw emerged from the hatch and walked towards the car they drove over from the resort. Shaw stopped when she saw the resort jeep. She also paused stuffing more breakfast food into her mouth to point out the obvious. 

“Finch, is this the only car there is? It’s only a four seater.” 

“Zoe took the other one back with her,” Reese replied back. 

“There’s five of us,” Shaw said a bit exasperated. She was a cranky and admittedly still very horny, which wasn’t a great combo in the tropical heat. Root’s casual attire wasn’t helping either. Despite her intense six plus private hours with Root that aspect hadn’t seemed to die down, if anything it seem to ramp up a bit more. How was that possible? She was definitely hornky. And she knew Root would exploit this as soon as she figured it out. 

“You got into medical school with that slow uptake?” asked Fusco who got a smack on his arm from his fake wife. 

“Looks like someone will have to sit on someone’s lap,” said Root with a smile on her face as she stared hard at Shaw. 

“I’m driving,” Shaw said while stuffing pancakes rolled around bacon in her mouth. She could only imagine the amount of grinding Root would do if she sat on her lap, it would make it damn near impossible to concentrate on the mission at hand. 

“Shaw, c’mon you’re the most lit…” before Fusco could finish he got the deadliest stare down from the petite primary asset so he stopped talking. He didn’t want to get smacked again; Shaw could pack a hard smack. 

“Wouldn’t you rather eat?” asked Reese with a hopeful shrug. He did get bummed sometimes he never got to drive.

“I can do both,” Shaw jumped into the driver’s seat. 

Shaw waited in the driver’s seat for the rest of them to get situated in the jeep. Finch of course took the front passenger seat leaving Fusco, Reese and Root to fight for the two remaining seats. The gear they needed was stored away in the trunk. 

“Well, hubby if you don’t mind,” Root climbed up in the jeep to sit on Reese’s lap, who had an annoyed look on his face. And then scrunched up his nose once as Root got situated on his lap, he grimaced at one point. 

Shaw hated to admit maybe this wasn’t her best seat choice. She didn’t want the guys treating her and Root differently just because they happened to find them mostly naked and alone together, yet she kind of wished now her lap was a seat option for Root. The petite primary asset steered the jeep and headed towards the ocean, getting coordinates from Finch on the dock where there was a tugboat they could commander for this mission. Looking in the rear-view mirror and seeing Root sit on Reese’s lap was not something she enjoyed seeing even though it was kind of funny to see the tall guy so uncomfortable. Yet she got angry seeing Root on Reese’s lap, and particularly a touch of seething when he held onto her waist on bumpy sections of the barely carved out jungle road. And it really didn’t help that Root had to put her arms loosely around his neck to hang on. Okay, on the way back Root was sitting in her lap, damn all the silly comments they will get. And damn Root’s wandering hands and most likely inappropriate bumpy grinding in her lap. 

As they pulled up to the dock they saw the tugboat they were going to borrow for a bit. It was a decent tugboat with a higher and lower deck. They all got on the tugboat; Reese and Shaw went to the upper deck and started up the boat. Then the staring match ensued on who would drive the boat. Reese lost and shuffled off to help Finch and Root set up the gear on the lower deck. Root stepped inside the main cabin to pull on her wetsuit. 

After about twelve minutes out to sea, Finch had Shaw stop the boat. She then descended to the lower deck on the ladder. Fusco and Reese were helping Finch get fully suited up in his scuba gear. 

“We should be directly over the cable here,” he held onto his infrared underwater radar. 

“She says you’re right Harry,” Root emerged from the cabin changed into a short sleeve wetsuit, that also had very short leggings. She sauntered out to join the team on the deck. 

Shaw wondered where Root had been hiding that, the hacker looked rather stunning in a wetsuit. She was really beginning to hate all the outfit choices on this mission. They were all distracting. Root caught Shaw staring at her and filed that away. 

“Looks like we’ll have to dive in to fix it after all,” Root scavenged around the deck for the rest of her scuba gear and started assembling it. 

Shaw walked over and stood in front of her. “No way Root.”

Reese, Finch and Fusco looked back and forth between the two women. All three men became super focused on assembling Finch’s scuba gear. 

“Sameen, it’s the only way,” Root looked at the gauges on the gear and kept assembling. She motioned over to Finch for him to start getting ready. 

“What so people can comment on some cousin’s ugly baby photos or cats doing something stupid? It’s not worth it,” Shaw grabbed the mouthpiece from Root’s hand. 

“It’s way more than that Shaw,” Root sounded a little exasperated at Shaw, although she did smile warmly at her petite primary asset. In her own way, Shaw definitely cared she thought; she cared for all of them. Way deeper than the petite primary asset would ever admit verbally or non-verbally. 

“She’s right Ms. Shaw, this has actually turned into a relevant situation regarding data and tied into the data are lives that are at risk,” said Finch in a very uncomfortable wetsuit, thankfully his was a full body covering one. 

Root finished assembling her scuba gear then started on Finch’s while Reese and Fusco secured the boat. Shaw kept her eyes glued on the sea for any approaching boats or any suspicious activity. She didn’t want to look at Root for various reasons. 

Shaw walked to the far edge of the boat away from the rest of the team to get a better lookout. Root came up next to her. “She did some calculations, at the level we are diving, the pressure is fine for my implant.” Root could see Shaw’s medical mind working. She didn’t know if this was actual concern for her or for the mission. It was always the mission for Shaw, she’s a good soldier through and through; one of the reasons Root was a big fan of the petite primary asset. 

Shaw rolled her eyes. “What about weapons?” 

Root pulled out an underwater pistol that shot steel darts; she gave Shaw a head titled smile. 

Shaw rolled her eyes again. “You know these aren’t great. The range is only about 100 feet and the accuracy is crap.” She grabbed the underwater pistol and examined it.

“Hopefully, we won’t need them, this is a quick fix. Besides there’s always the traditional standby,” Root leaned into Shaw’s personal space. 

“Your taser isn’t going to work underwater. Neither is your iron,” Shaw squinted her eyes at Root. 

Root pulled out a knife and held it between them. Her other hand landed on Shaw’s ass where the petite primary asset quickly removed it with a quick twist to the arm. “Maybe we can celebrate with an iron later?”

Shaw started blankly at Root then stomped around the boat, busying herself with equipment. 

“I don’t know why Reese and I can’t fix the cable,” Shaw spouted angrily, mostly at Root. 

Root walked over and grabbed Shaw’s arm gently. “There are too many components of the cable to explain quickly. If you could make sure none of Samaritan’s agents come after us down there that would be extremely helpful.” She then leaned into Shaw’s ear, so the guys couldn’t hear. “I’ll pay you back later.”

“Payback is gonna be rough,” Shaw snapped back to Root. 

“Promise?” Root flirted back to Shaw. 

“I could stab you with a fishing pole,” Shaw grabbed one of said poles to push it between her and the hacker. 

“Just stab the bad guys if they pop up,” Root did her non-wink. 

Shaw sighed. “I’m not Aquaman, how am I going to tell if someone is coming after you two underwater?” The petite primary asset spat out agitated. “Then what? Send in some sharks to beat them up?”

“Make sure they’re the sharks with lasers beams,” Fusco joked, then stopped and looked seriously at Root, “Don’t jump a shark though, that’s bad luck.” 

Shaw gave Fusco a cold, scolding stare. 

Root went over to pull something out of the equipment pile. “Use this,” Root handed over a tiny monitor attached to fishing wire along with fake bait. “This is a camera on the line, not bait. You can watch on the monitor here.” The hacker motioned to a small monitor that she fastened on to the fishing pole. She then handed another pole over to Fusco. 

Finch looked very uncomfortable in his scuba gear. “Believe me Ms. Shaw, I would much rather have you go in my place down there.” He picked up his mouthpiece and looked over in disgust. “I never fully mastered the technique of swimming.”

Shaw threw her hands in the air in anger and frustration. 

Root and Finch quickly finished putting on their scuba gear, they both looked out over the water below. Reese, Fusco and Shaw stood next to them and looked a little uneasy about the two tech ops of their group going underwater. 

“Finch, if it can’t be fixed easily let it go. It’s too risky having both of you down there,” Reese said with a serious look on his face. He was getting quite the deep tan from all the outdoor activities. “I’m sure the Machine will have other ideas on how to stop Samaritan from compromising all that data.” 

“Thank you, John,” Finch said while positioning his glasses under his big goggles. 

The three men looked to each other briefly before looking over to Root and Shaw, in an unspoken head nod they wondered if they needed to give the two women a moment. That idea was dashed very quickly when Shaw grabbed Root’s mouthpiece, shoved it in her mouth then pushed the hacker off the boat unceremoniously into the ocean water. All three men raised their eyebrows and then turned to look at Shaw who only shrugged. Root made a big splash then surfaced up to the water only smiling up at her petite primary asset.

Finch readjusted the scuba gear over his head one more time, making sure his earpiece was in place. Then he secured his goggles and mouthpiece and then slid slowly into the ocean water. Root was treading water waiting for him. 

“Thanks for the send off Shaw,” Root splashed as hard as she could trying to land some ocean water on Shaw. 

“Ms. Groves please, can we just get this over with,” Finch pleaded, you could still see how hard he was squinting through his big goggles and scuba headgear. 

“Sure thing Harry,” Root checked Finch’s gear before they fully submerged underwater. “Let’s go see what’s in Davy Jones’s Locker.” As soon as Root finished her nerdy one liner they both disappeared under water. 

“That’s not a good euphemism to use right now,” Reese deadpanned while looking down at the water where his teammates disappeared. 

They were out of sight pretty quickly, sinking down to the depths of the ocean. The whole thing gave Shaw a stomachache; then again she thought she was probably just hungry.

After a few minutes of scanning the ocean repeatedly and the monitor on the fishing pole for any movement; Root and Finch finally showed up as a small blip on the monitor. When Root got closer, she pulled the camera to her to kiss it. Shaw rolled her eyes at the nerd hacker. 

“I think something is down there with them,” Fusco said in a slightly worried tone. “Oh wait, it’s like a huge eel or something. Maybe a stingray? The ones that look like they have big flappy ears.”

“Those aren’t ears Lionel, stingrays are related to sharks. Do you see sharks on your side?” Shaw had a serious look on her face as she stared down at the ocean water, “Root, is it all clear?”

Shaw looked up to Reese on the higher deck; he nodded at her, meaning of course the water was still clear of any other boats. 

Shaw studied the monitor intensely; she thought she saw some movement from the corner of the screen that looked odd. It kind of did look like a cool stingray.<\p>

"Hey, Root. Do us a favor and don’t get stung by some exotic stingray,” Shaw moved the fishing pole around so the camera at the end of the line would get a better view.

There was a brief pause on the line then some static. “I’m kinda hoping to get stung by a certain jellyfish,” you could hear the wink in Root’s voice over the communication link.

“Root…if you do, you’re on your own. Or Lionel here can help you,” Shaw re-positioned the fishing pole again; she was antsy for Root and Finch to return to the surface. She wasn’t happy about their two nerds being at nearly the bottom of the ocean basically unprotected. And the thought of Root being the one stung by the insane sex crazed jellyfish, actually did tug out a small smile on her lips. She could only imagine how much dangerous fun Root would be under the influence; actually it might not be that different from her regular personality. 

“No way, I can’t imagine Banana Nut Crunch with more nuts. Besides you owe her,” said Fusco as he readjusted his pole to get a better view. “Wait…I think I see something…” he was serious now. 

Shaw moved over quickly to see what Fusco was seeing on his monitor. There appeared to be two people speeding very quickly along the bottom getting closer and closer to Root and Finch, she gritted her teeth. 

“Root! There are two perps headed your way, your three o’clock,” Shaw said very urgently, she touched her ear as if that helped the message get to Root quicker. 

“The numbers aren’t doing it for me Sweetie. Let’s try an ascending tone cue for right, descending for left,” Root responded back to Shaw playfully. 

“I’m going to descend a tone in your ass if you don’t look left,” Shaw yelled at Root through the communication links. 

Shaw rushed up to look at the monitor again on the fishing pole. Two people were closing in on Root and Finch while they worked away on repairing the cable. 

“Root! Two Samaritan agents are twenty feet away at your three o’clock,” Shaw then looked at Fusco’s monitor, which had a slightly different angle of the situation down below.  
Root didn’t respond right away. 

Shaw had an extremely determined look on her face.

Shaw threw her fishing pole monitor down on the ground. She searched around the boat until she found all the essential parts to another scuba ensemble. 

“I’m going down there to kill her myself.”

Reese had binoculars and was scanning the ocean for another boat. “There are no boats anywhere in sight.” Then he went and looked over at the monitors and saw the two people approaching Root and Finch more clearly. “They’ve got high powered sea scooters, that’s how they’re moving around so fast.” He then descended the ladder to the lower deck and went rummaging through the gear they brought on board and found one. 

Shaw was busy pulling off her tank top; wearing her black bikini every day here on the island had become a habit. Reese came up to her with the sea scooter as she yanked her shorts off. He helped her put on a makeshift scuba gear that would last long enough for her to get down there and kick some ass. Before he could tell her anything, she leapt off the side of the boat splashing down hard in the ocean water. Reese leaned over the edge with the sea scooter; Shaw yanked it from his hands. She then kicked, submerged herself under water then fired up the sea scooter and pointed it straight down to the bottom. 

By the time Shaw got to the bottom, Root was fighting with both agents, one taller guy and one shorter guy, while Finch continued fixing the undersea cable, completely oblivious to all the action. The shorter guy was injured already from Root stabbing him with her knife in his arm. He cried out in pain momentarily off to the side. As Shaw proceeded holding onto the sea scooter as it propelled her closer to Root. The hacker looked up from punching the taller guy, which looked like in slow motion due to being underwater. She made eye contact with Shaw, as soon as the petite primary asset got closer. She used the speed of sea scooter to drop kick the taller guy in the chest; she then let go of the sea scooter. She swam over to Root, she reached around her waist and retrieved the underwater pistol from her belt. Just then the shorter guy with the leg wound lunged for her in slow motion, Shaw kicked off him pushing her further away. The slight distance gave Shaw a better angle as she shot the underwater pistol at the shorter guy. The steel dart pierced his leg; blood flowed in the water like a red cloud hitting a blue sky. Suddenly, the taller guy came upon him on the sea scooter, pulled his arm and they both speed off further into the deep ocean. Shaw aimed and shot the taller guy in his upper back as they sped away. 

Root turned to stare at Shaw then violently hunched over in pain and cried out over the communication links. She grabbed for her ear. 

Damn it, Shaw thought. The underwater pressure had hurt her cochlear implant. 

Just then Finch turned around, so focused on working on the cable he hadn’t noticed that Shaw was there now. All he saw was Root hunched over in pain and a shadowy figure near her; it was a fast blur. He grabbed for his underwater pistol and shot a steel dart at Shaw. He actually landed it in her leg. 

“FINCH!” Shaw screamed out over the communication links. 

On the tugboat, Reese and Fusco froze staring at each with serious, worried faces. “What’s happening Shaw? Is Finch okay?”

“No…no…no he’s not.” Shaw spoke in a ragged breath. “He’s going to be a _dead_ man.”

Reese and Fusco stared at each other confused and worried while looking at the monitors and trying to figure out what was going on underwater. 

“I’m going to kill him,” there was definitely an undercurrent of murderous rage in Shaw’s voice over the communication link. She looked down through her goggles to see the steel dart sticking out in her leg. She reached over, gritted her teeth and pulled it out roughly. Blood started flowing out in puffs like clouds in the water. 

Finch looked over and made the most egregious face, “Oh, I’m sorry Ms. Shaw!” 

“Shaw, you went down there to kill Root. Are you killing Finch as well?” Reese said with a cheerful mirth to his voice. He thought if Shaw was threatening to kill Finch then she must have wiped out the bad guys momentarily. He repositioned the fishing pole and now could see Finch and Shaw huddled around Root who seemed to be in pain. “Shaw, did you really shoot Root again?”

“No, she’s having trouble with her implant. We need to get her up ASAP.” Shaw reached over to get Root to look up into her eyes. The hacker was clearly in pain, a lot of pain. 

“You know the rules Shaw, don’t ascend too ASAP,” Reese said sternly. 

“No shit, dumbass,” Shaw said very harshly. Not only was she in pain and bleeding, but also Root could be even more trouble. The blood from her leg came out as a slow trickle underwater, like smoke billowing out of a chimney. “Finch! Let’s go!” Shaw grabbed onto Root’s waist and held her tight as she started to slowly move them up to the surface; the hacker leaned into her. Root laid her head against Shaw’s chest. Finch followed right behind them. “Take it nice and easy Finch.” Shaw ran her hand up and down Root’s arm, “Hang in there,” she said in the calmest tone she could manage while also managing the pain in her leg and accessing Root’s injuries. 

They finally reached the surface of the water slowly; Reese along with Fusco helped pull them up on the boat. Shaw frantically started removing her scuba gear, then went to work on removing Root’s as cautiously as she could. Root winced in pain. 

“Shaw…” Root got out into between labored breaths, “…I don’t know if it’s pressure…” she could barely talk, “…or something else.” 

“Here, let me take a look,” Shaw carefully tilted Root’s head so she could get a better look in her ear. She barked at Finch to hand her a flashlight. She couldn’t see anything wrong with Root’s ear or implant. 

“Ms. Shaw what about your leg?” Finch looked horrified at what he had done to Shaw’s leg; she had quite the small gash in her leg. 

“I’m fine Harold, just help Root,” Shaw grabbed a nearby towel and wrapped it around her leg after quickly examining and accessing it was just a basic flesh wound, nothing too big.

Reese and Fusco headed to the upper deck again, the bridge, of the tugboat to get going and put some distance in case more Samaritan agents came after them. 

Shaw was so angry she wanted to smash Finch’s glasses for her leg wound; it was definitely slowing down her thinking in regards on how best to help Root. She saw how much pain Root was in, she scooted down on the floor of the boat and pulled Root partly in her lap. She held Root’s head in between her legs, “Hey, remember how we met?”

“I tried to burn you with an iron,” Root got out in pained gasps. She grabbed hold of Shaw’s thigh for support, thankfully the non-shot one. 

“Yeah, this might be just as fun,” Shaw said back to Root with a smirk. 

“Well, my head is in between your legs,” Root said through a few quick in takes of quick breathing. 

“Too bad it’s not a jelly fish sting, so I could return the favor by peeing on you,” Shaw looked into Root’s ear again. 

Root winced in pain, and grabbed her head harder along with Shaw’s thigh. “I’m not really into that kink Sweetie, but I’m all up for you marking your territory.”

Finch looked through the medical bag and found a sedative to give to Root. “I found a sedative Ms. Shaw for Root.”

Root continued to writhe in pain while sweat poured off of her. 

“Ms. Shaw we need…Root to be still, so I can administer the needle,” Harold had a very concerned look on his face. He wasn’t happy about attempting to give Root a shot on a bumpy boat. 

“Okay, Root, listen. You need to be still okay?” Shaw looked down into Root’s eyes, as best as she could as the hacker kept closing them during difficult breaths and the pounding pain in her head; like twenty car alarms going off inside your skull. Shaw gripped Root’s head firmer in her hands. Then she leaned down and kissed Root on the lips, she was slow and her lips lingered. It was extremely tender, so much so Harold shifted uncomfortably being witness to the intimate moment between the two women. Shaw smirked down to Root who quieted down in her thrashing and stared up adoringly into Shaw’s face. 

Shaw sat up to get Finch’s attention to administer the sedative. “Okay, Finch…” she stopped talking abruptly because Finch had turned around at the same time and just ran into her with the needle. 

And Finch accidentally discharged the needle of painkillers when it hit Shaw’s arm. 

“Finch!”

“Oh Ms. Shaw!” Finch looked scared and shocked at the same time. Obviously, he was worried what Shaw was going to do with him and his grievous mistake. 

“What happened down there?” Reese yelled from the upper deck. “Fusco take the wheel.” He descended down the ladder and joined Finch and Shaw in a staring contest.  
Finch turned to Reese. “I’m afraid I just injected Ms. Shaw with a large dose of sedative.”

Reese turned to Shaw, who was starting to sway back and forth, the drugs already starting to take effect. He looked over at Root already passed out on the floor partially in Shaw’s lap. 

“Fuck you Harold…” Shaw started feeling herself about to pass out, “…and…your stupid….glasssssses.” Then she fell backwards on the boat completely unconscious. Root now passed out from pain laying half on Shaw. 

Fusco looked down at Root and Shaw passed out while Reese and Finch stood there dumbfounded. “I don’t think we’re at the top of our game here in Hawaii,” the detective yelled down at his fellow teammates. 

Root woke up from briefly passing out from the pain. The pain was gone, completely. It was as if the car alarms in her head got turned off abruptly. She sat up; she looked around confused and saw Shaw sprawled out on the boat, not moving. “Shaw!” Root leaned over to Shaw, she ran her hands over her petite primary asset’s body looking for any injuries. Her hand got blood on it quickly from the leg wound. “Is she okay?” She ran her hands through Shaw’s hair. “Did she get shot?”

“Yeah, she kind of did,” said Reese with a scrunched up nose and nervous face. 

“Who shot her?” Root asked in a very scary voice. 

“It was an…accident Ms. Groves,” Finch said a bit bewildered in a very wobbly voice; scared of one seething Analog Interface, her eyes getting closer and closer to the murderous zone. She was even scarier than Ms. Shaw. 

“Harold…” Root stared at him with cold, bitter eyes. “…you shot Shaw? On accident?”

“It was a shot.” Finch looked at Root’s wild and crazy eyes and had to correct himself immediately. “A syringe of painkillers meant for you. Ms. Shaw bumped into me.” Finch was truly scared of Root. He didn’t want to tell her at this moment he was also responsible for Ms. Shaw’s leg injury. 

Root sat back on her legs for a moment, a thoughtful expression coming over her face. “Oh, you drugged her?” The murderous rage started slowly draining away from her face. 

Finch nodded slowly and carefully, as if backing away slowly from a wild, crazed animal about to attack. 

“Well, who hasn’t been there,” Root leaned over Shaw and brushed some of her wet hair from her face. 

A huge wave of relief washed over Finch as Root looked like she wasn’t going to murder him, for now.


	19. Book Therapy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the comments and reading! Uh, I have no idea what's going on, I'm just having fun...hope y'all are too.
> 
> Thanks so very very much to SloanGreyMercyDeath! This chapter was a mess before all the generous support and help! You're so AWESOME!! :-)

After they got off the boat, Reese carried Shaw back to the car while the rest of the team followed behind him. All the guys were suspiciously quiet; Root had been so focused on Shaw that she hadn’t noticed too much. Root still felt a little wobbly in her head after having sirens blaring inside her cranium. 

Root got into the car and positioned half of her back against the door and backseat to make a comfortable space for Shaw. Reese deposited Shaw’s upper half in Root’s lap and the lower half, her legs, ended up in Fusco’s lap who was sharing the backseat. Root cradled Shaw’s head in one arm while the other arm draped across Shaw’s torso and held onto her waist. She ran her hand over Shaw’s forehead pushing her hair to side. The petite primary asset looked even more beautiful and quite peaceful while she was asleep. They were both damp from being in the water and the humidity was making both of them sweat heavily. 

Shaw had decided on the car trip over to the boat that Root would be sitting in her lab on the way back. She definitely hadn’t expected to be sitting or splayed out on Root’s lap instead. Not to mention half on Fusco. Shaw wasn’t thinking of anything right now though; the massive amount of painkillers Finch had accidentally injected into her arm had rendered her unconscious.

Reese got in the driver’s seat and Finch took the front passenger seat. Once they were all settled, Reese started heading back to the resort. 

Root and Fusco watched Shaw sleep while Reese drove them down the bumpy road back to the resort. 

“She’s really gone, like in another galaxy gone. She doesn’t know who or where she is,” Fusco waved his hand in front of sleeping Shaw’s face. “She’s completely blitzed out on the painkillers.” He smiled looking over at Shaw wrapped up in Coco Puff’s arms. 

Root held on tight as the road hit a bumpy patch. Shaw turned her head and pressed her face into Root’s chest. 

“I gotta get a photo of Grumpy Pants curled up in your lap,” Fusco reached in his pocket to get his phone. 

“Lionel, that is not a good idea, you know I will just have it erased from your phone,” Root said sternly to the detective with some deadly eye daggers shooting from her eyes. 

“She looks like a baby being cradled, this is priceless,” pleaded Fusco to Root. 

“Lionel, she’s not a baby,” Root scolded Fusco for his teasing of her favorite asset. “Now, if John got knocked out, I could see Harry cradling him like a baby.”

Reese looked at the rearview mirror to stare at Root, he squinted his eyes at her. Finch turned his head to the backside. He thought wisely before saying a rebuttal to Root’s remark though. 

“How long do you think she will be out?” Root asked while looking down at Shaw with a little bit of worry on her face. 

“Oh, Ms. Groves…it could be six hours or more. I’m afraid…” Finch was going to continue when Root cut him off. 

“I wasn’t asking you,” Root said rather aggressively to Finch, she was a little peeved that Harry accidentally drugged her favorite primary asset. Especially since they didn’t know how much longer they would be on the island, hence how long their pragmatist island deal might last. Any recovery time was lost sexy romp time, plus, they had to actually work a mission now, too. 

Root got that godlike mode in her eyes and she tilted her head. Finch turned his head to say something, but then thought better of it as he could tell the Machine was talking to her Analog Interface. 

“She says four hours, so in Shaw time that’s about an hour and half. She’s got a very high tolerance for everything,” Root smiled a little and ran her fingers through Shaw’s wet hair.

Yeah, including you,” joked Fusco, he smiled at his two Loony Toon love/lust struck teammates. 

They were about halfway to the resort when Shaw stirred at bit; she squirmed in Root’s lap. Both Root and Fusco looked over to Shaw with raised eyebrows. 

“Mmmm…Root…” Shaw turned over slightly in Root’s lap, her hand reached and grabbed the hacker’s arm on her stomach. “Do that thing again with your tongue…mmmm…”

Root’s eyes shot wide open. She wanted to smile, but she didn’t want to give the guys any ammo that would make Shaw kill her later.

Fusco turned his head to smirk at Root while Reese did the same thing through the rearview mirror. Finch decided to stay quiet and not ensure the upcoming wrath of Shaw.

There was a moment of awkward silence as everyone watched Shaw to see if she was going to speak again. Root kept her one arm firm on Shaw’s stomach. Shaw suddenly leaned up, one arm reached out to pull Root’s head down. 

“Root…hey Root…” Shaw placed very sloppy, blitzed-out-of-her-mind kisses along Root’s chest where her shirt dipped in the middle. The hacker discreetly cupped Shaw’s face to get her to stop, she knew the petite firecracker would not want to be seen this way in front of the rest of the team. Shaw had already made quite the show knocked out on jellyfish stung brain, what the odds she would have a repeat performance on the same trip. 

Root gently pulled away from those delectable lips of Shaw’s, already feeling the loss. The brief kisses lingered on Root’s skin, causing goose bumps to pop up all over her arms and legs; which she was sure didn’t go unnoticed by the observant detective sitting next to her. 

“I like seeing you naked…” mumbled out of Shaw’s mouth as she squirmed again in Root’s lap and her hand latched onto the hacker’s arm again. 

Now everyone’s eyes were wide open. Evidently, a high dosage of painkillers was having the same effect on Shaw as a rare, dangerous jellyfish. Or maybe it was once again the close proximity of one Root. 

“I like feeling you naked…” 

Root put her fingers over Shaw’s mouth to get her to stop talking. She was unsuccessful because, despite a leg wound and massive painkillers, Shaw was still way stronger than her. Shaw’s strength was extremely impressive in any state. She grabbed Root’s wrist hard and held tight. 

“Let’s get naked…” Shaw still had her eyes closed so when she reached up to kiss Root, she was actually still quite far away from the hacker’s lips. So after an unsuccessful lip lock, Shaw fell back down in Root’s lap asleep again. 

Root was finding Shaw even more adorable with her under the painkiller influence rambling. She couldn’t stop a huge wattage smile while looking down at Shaw. She thought, despite being drugged up on painkillers she’s still thinking of her. Okay, so it's a sex thought, still she figured heavily into the equation Root thought. 

“Hey, I’m not going to be in some threesome with you two,” Fusco squawked out, staring down at Shaw’s legs on his lap. “If I had known about the carpooling arrangements, I would have driven myself.” 

The guys all raised their eyebrows, looking shocked and disgusted. 

“No one repeat anything she says. Need I remind everyone that she’s under the influence because of Finch?” Root threatened the entire team. 

Shaw might hit Fusco and Reese again like her jellyfish attack behavior if they tease her at all with recap of this car ride. And she might actually hurt Finch for putting her under the influence where she practically tried to seduce Root in front of the team. Again, in a one week time frame. 

“She definitely wants to be under something,” Fusco joked back to Root. 

Shaw twisted around to pull Root’s arm and hold it tighter against her chest. She kicked up legs still outstretched partly on Fusco’s lap. The detective made another pained, disgusted face as she slammed them back down on his lap, hitting sensitive areas. 

“I prefer stoic, non-verbal grumpy shortcakes…Horny Shaw is even scarier and more disturbing.” Fusco looked scared and mildly grossed out, his posture rigid. He was afraid any moment Shaw’s leg would kick him in the face. Yup, even if he never gets Crabby Cakes to confess, he knew his fake wife was bonkers over Coco Puffs. 

Root reluctantly pulled away from Shaw and kept her hand on her chest to make sure she didn’t reach up again. 

“Shaw, just sleep,” Root looked down into Shaw’s eyes. She rubbed her finger over Shaw’s cute, furrowed brow.

“Call me baby again,” Shaw demanded. She gripped Root’s wrist hard. 

Root didn’t remember ever calling Shaw ‘baby’ the first time; would she have let her live if she had used that corny endearment on her. She didn’t think so. 

“Shaw…” Root looked around at the guys, who all diverted the eyes away from the two women. “Baby…please, stop talking and sleep,” Root said as Shaw stared at her through half lidded eyes. “C’mon baby...get some rest.” As soon as Root said this, Shaw’s eyes closed completely. The baby endearment seemed to work and Shaw fell fast asleep in Root’s arms. 

“Oh, I’m filing that away for payback,” Fusco said, rubbing his hands together. 

Root shot Fusco a cold dead glare, the detective felt shivers go down his spine. He had second thoughts on teasing Shaw about her baby demands. 

*****

When they parked at the resort, Reese got out and gently lifted Shaw off Root’s lap. He started walking to the lobby carrying Shaw in his arms. 

“John, that’s not fair. I wanted to carry Sameen,” Root pouted, jumping out of the car and chasing after Reese. This might be her only shot; Sameen was rarely ever this incapacitated.

Reese stopped and turned around to stare into Root eyes and then pushed Shaw into her arms. Root did wobble slightly realizing that Shaw was mostly muscle which was heavier than fat. She carried Shaw like a sleeping child or a couple waiting to walk over a romantic threshold. As they approached the resort lobby, Root stopped in her tracks. 

“Wait, I can’t carry Shaw through the lobby like this. What if Joan or Tinswell sees us,” Root asked herself. The guys all stopped and looked at her.

“I guess I’ll carry Short Stack,” Fusco reached out his arms to take sleeping beauty Shaw. 

“No. This might never happen again.” Root wanted to be the one to get to carry Shaw. “I’m carrying her. I just need to reposition. If Shaw ever sees this, we got to give her some dignity.”

With the help of Reese, Root positioned Shaw over her shoulder like she was carrying a sack of potatoes. 

“Yeah, that’s more dignified,” snarked an amused Fusco as he watched Coco Puffs carry his fake wife through the resort lobby. 

*****

A few hours later, the late afternoon sun streamed through the half-closed blinds and cast a warm glow over Root’s resort room. Shaw’s eyes felt really heavy; she tried to open them several times and struggled to pry them apart from each other. It almost felt like her eyelids were glued together. She finally managed to open them, everything felt fuzzy from her vision to her thinking. She felt like she was still underwater. 

She felt something warm below her hand; she moved her hand and felt smooth, silky skin underneath. She turned her head to see Root sitting up next to her working on her laptop. She was wearing a t-shirt, more stolen underwear, and her glasses as she stared intensely at her screen, working. Shaw’s stomach felt weird. She realized no one had ever been around when she woke up from an injury. Was Root really just here watching over her? And why had her hand reached out for Root? Like her hand needed some lame ass comfort or something? She slowly removed her hand from Root’s leg. 

“Hey, baby. Are you feeling better?” Root looked over to Shaw, moving her laptop over to the other side of the bed. 

“I’m not a baby,” Shaw didn’t mean for her voice to sound so stern, she didn’t like the silly endearment. She was a badass, not a baby. For some reason, Root looked amused.

“Of course, you’re not a baby.” A wide grin spread across Root’s face as she remembered Shaw’s earlier, drugged desires for ‘baby’ calling. 

Root had been really worried about Shaw. She did NOT like seeing Shaw unconscious on the floor of the boat. Since Finch was trying to administer her a painkiller and not Shaw, she wasn’t too upset with the admin. She did want to maim the Samaritan operative that shot Shaw in the leg, her gorgeous perfect leg. Thankfully, she had managed to patch it up with only a few stitches. All the boys had been very vague on exactly how Shaw got the leg wound; they just nodded when she asked them if it was a Samaritan agent. 

She couldn’t remember clearly because her head felt like it was going to explode at some point underwater. It wasn’t the pressure; it was definitely a signal interference of some sort as they started to repair the cable. It was a blur of images down below the ocean. She knew Shaw had come down to save them and she saw Shaw fighting off the two Samaritan agents, so at some point she must have gotten hit by one of them. 

Root was happy to see Shaw was waking up; yet another dopey grin spread across her face. Once they finally got off the boat, back to the resort and got Shaw patched up; Root got them both cleaned up and told the guys that the petite firecracker needed some rest. She didn’t care if they missed any of their undercover therapy sessions.

“Are you hungry?” Root hopped out of bed and left the room. “I ordered some food earlier.” She said as she left the room to go to the kitchen, where she grabbed the food and some water bottles. 

Shaw pushed herself up in sitting position, her body sore. There was sharp pain in her leg. She looked down at her leg and the bandage. She realized at some point Root changed her clothes. She smelled herself, she smelled good. She also realized at some point, Root cleaned her up. Then she wondered what all happened after Finch had shot her up with painkillers. The last thing she remembered was being on the boat with a syringe full of painkillers. 

“Our fake husbands are out gathering information and fending off questions from Tinswell and that nosy Joan,” Root walked back into the room carrying two plates of food and some water bottles; two sandwiches and some bags of chips. “Finch and Zoe, have book therapy without us. The boys told Tinswell and Joan we went out shopping together and got food poisoning.” 

Shaw shook her head at Root; she then grabbed one of the sandwiches and tore into it, she was starving. Getting shot and then tranquilized was extremely exhausting and a huge appetite stimulate, well everything was a huge appetite stimulate for Shaw. She watched Root sit back down on the bed, all bare leg in the loose t-shirt, with her sexy nerd glasses on. Root sat close enough their knees were almost touching. Shaw shook her head again, this time to stop staring at the Root’s legs; she didn’t know if she was drooling over the sandwich or the long legs. 

They ate in comfortable silence; both of them too busy eating to talk much. They did steal glances at each other in between hurried bites of sandwiches and chips. Shaw got some mustard smeared near her mouth; Root leaned over and with her thumb wiped it off. After the second sandwich Shaw felt better, less fuzzy. Her leg was throbbing, but it also wasn’t the only area of her body throbbing. Waking up next to Root kind of made her stomach warm like drinking a good scotch sometimes did, also images of the hacker in that skin tight scuba gear flooded her brain. She had to admit this loose t-shirt with glasses look was almost the hottest look she had seen yet. She was pissed at Finch for taking away any time on the island. She needed to stick to her plan of having as much sex with Root as part of their island deal to get it out of her system before heading back to New York.

“What are you working on?” asked Shaw finishing off a bag of chips. 

“I hacked into the cable, looks like everything is working again. And the press is playing it off as another shark caused the damage,” Root leaned over Shaw to grab her laptop, which got her an annoyed look as it made Shaw pause in stuffing food in her mouth. Root made sure to linger over Shaw, positioning her ass for a second longer than necessary in Shaw’s face acting as if the laptop was further out of reach than it was. 

Shaw looked at her confused, once the annoyed look wore off and the words sunk in that Root had said before sticking her ass out on display. Shaw couldn’t think of anything else now. It took all her will power not to throw the rest of her sandwich on the floor and grab the hacker’s displayed ass. 

Root positioned herself back on the bed, sitting so close to Shaw nearly every inch of their bodies were touching. 

"Sharks are easy scapegoats for underwater cable damage, there’s almost a story planted every year. Harry and I took the proper precautions so the cable didn’t electrocute us,” Root typed away on her laptop while wearing the distracting glasses.

“That was one of the risks?” asked a surprised Shaw as she watched Root. 

Shaw leaned over Root to put her sandwich plate on the nightstand. This time she positioned her ass right in Root’s face over the keyboard of the laptop. She stayed a few seconds longer than necessary despite the throbbing in her leg, Root’s hands trapped on the keyboard and under her torso. She then sat back up with a blank face that was hard to maintain considering Root was smiling wide at her recent display. 

“They do carry thousands volts of power, so it’s harder for people to sabotage them. Still happens sometimes as it did yesterday. It’s funny to think a lot of our Internet swims deep in the ocean,” Root tilted the laptop screen to show a graph to Shaw. 

Shaw leaned over to get a better look; she put her fingers over the touchpad to move the graph. Shaw’s fingers brushing up against Root’s hand over the laptop. Root turned her head and ran her nose across Shaw’s neck, inhaling deeply. Shaw stared at the screen and then opened another screen; she pulled the laptop from Root’s lap onto her own.

Root got that Machine look in her eyes. “She’s telling me that the book therapy session is about to start, so we don’t have that much time before we have to leave,” Root said rather glumly. She knew she couldn’t spend the rest of the afternoon and night in bed with Shaw. 

“Do I want to know what book therapy entails?” asked Shaw and in return she got a head tilt from Root. 

“Here let me check your dressings before we have to get fully dressed,” Root got off the bed and headed towards the bathroom. “I left the first aid kit in the bathroom.” She washed her hands before heading back to the bedroom and Shaw. 

When Root came back into the room, Shaw was stretched out on the bed completely naked, except the bandage on her leg. Root stood stunned for a moment; she took a nervous swallow as she approached the bed and Shaw in her birthday suit waiting for her. She was being ridiculous; she had seen Shaw naked all night just hours ago and her tongue had explored every inch of that skin on glorious display. However, she was rendered speechless and totally flustered by the same woman. 

“I thought it might make it easier for you to check my wound,” Shaw spoke low and slow, she let her eyes run over up and down Root’s body, especially those long legs. She knew they had to work to do; yet she couldn’t help herself when she was left alone with Root in a hotel room. 

Root knew the word ‘wound’ should not as sexy as it sounded coming out of Shaw’s mouth. Yet, it did. Root hesitated. She did not expect a naked Shaw. Was Shaw still under the influence of the painkillers? Her forever kryptonite would be naked Shaw. Or just Shaw period. Naked or fully clothed, no need in fooling herself she thought. 

“Root, I’m guessing we don’t have a lot time before we have to run off somewhere for either another absurd fake therapy session or chasing after some bad guys.” Shaw leaned on her elbows; she then tilted her head to gaze intensely into Root’s eyes. “Right now, you get to play doctor.” 

Shaw really enjoyed seeing how utterly flummoxed Root was by her nudity. She could tell Root was exhibiting all the classic signs of unfiltered, unabashed attraction and arousal; her pupils were dilated, she had glean of sweat forming on her forehead and upper lip and Shaw was betting the hacker was already on a dopamine high. Shaw admitted herself; she had been on a dopamine high since the first day on the island, maybe longer if she was being completely scientifically accurate around one annoying hacker. 

Root moved quickly to the bed, she placed the first aid kit on the bed and gently ran her hand up Shaw’s leg until it neared the bandaged area. She gently pulled the bandage away and looked at the stitches. She was consciously not letting her eyes roam all over Shaw’s body or she wouldn’t finish cleaning and making sure the leg wound was healing properly. 

“I guess Reese did a decent job of stitching me up,” Shaw was still propped up on her elbows watching Root check her stitches. She was impressed with Root’s professional focus; although, she could tell she was working quickly so she could get unprofessional. 

“Actually, this is my handiwork,” Root looked over her work closely, making sure everything looked good before cleaning and patching Shaw back up with a fresh bandage. 

“You stitched me up?” Asked a surprised Shaw. 

“I’ve been practicing on grapes and oranges,” Root said putting the supplies back in the first aid kit and set the stuff aside on the floor. She ran her eyes over Shaw’s body, completely and hungrily. 

Now, that she was done with making sure Shaw was healing okay, she ran her hands all over her body under the guise of a ‘check up.’ Root lingered in certain areas more and then kissed other places in need of more special attention. 

Shaw sat up and tugged Root’s shirt off, tossing it aside. She pulled off Root’s underwear, getting rid of that, too. She was almost tempted to say leave the glasses on, yet considering how many things they had destroyed in the past twenty-four hours; she slid the glasses off Root’s face slowly. She handed them to Root who placed them on the nightstand. 

When Root leaned back down, Shaw grabbed her hair and pulled her into a long, deep kiss. Root slid her tongue into Shaw’s mouth and was rolled over onto her back.

“I can’t believe Finch accidentally hit you with the syringe full of painkillers,” Root got out quickly in between kisses. 

“I can’t believe the fool got me twice,” Shaw said from above her, starting to remember more details. It was Finch who shot her in the leg. She was getting pissed all over again.

Root turned her head and Shaw kissed her way down to Root’s neck, instead of her lips.

“Twice?” Root turned to face Shaw. Their eyes met and they stared at each other, then Shaw went in for a kiss but Root dodged her. “He hit you twice with the syringe?”

“No, he’s the asshat who shot me in the leg,” Shaw went back to sucking on Root’s neck. 

“I thought a Samaritan agent did that,” Root slightly pushed Shaw back to look at her face. 

“No, it was our fearful leader,” Shaw went lower, she kissed and sucked all over Root’s chest. “I’m pissed at the bastard.” She said in between teasing each of Root’s nipples with her teeth. 

Root pushed Shaw gently up off of her, minding her leg, to sit up. “I’m pissed at all of them. That is not what those three lead me to believe. All three of them have some payback coming their way.” Root’s eyes looked murderous as she tilted her head, obviously thinking of her fellow teammates. 

“Some Rovenge?” Shaw almost snorted at her own lame joke.

Root smiled wickedly at Shaw to imply yes, absolutely. She leaned back over and captured Shaw’s lips in a fierce kiss, sucking hard on her lower lip, quickly biting and letting go.

“The only truthful male on the team is Bear,” Root said quickly and breathlessly. 

“Of course Bear is the best,” Shaw pushed Root back down so she could to start her kissing onslaught again. The hacker moaned as Shaw sucked her tongue, refusing to give it back. 

Root pulled back again, she pushed Shaw off her with a look of determination on her face. 

“What are you doing?” Shaw asked as a naked Root lunged for her laptop and started typing furiously on the keyboard. 

“I had been saving some tricks, I’m just putting some into play right now for Harry,” Root kept typing quickly and intensely. 

She could feel Shaw crawl up behind her, inching closer and closer until she was spooning her from behind in a sitting position. Their legs pressed together, every inch of skin touching. Shaw leaned on Root’s back; alternating placing kisses along the hacker’s shoulder blades and all over neck. She pushed up a few times, pushing her center into Root’s lower back which stopped Root from typing every time. 

“The next therapy session is just about to start, I just hacked Tinswell’s iPad and changed some information for the session.” Root had a slightly devious, yet smug look on her face when she turned her head to look at Shaw. 

*****

Tinswell had everyone sitting in a circle on the floor on pillows. Since Sam and Sammy were sick with food poisoning, that also took out John and Lionel, much to their relief. So that left Betty and Fred (the older couple), Craig and Gina (the middle-aged couple) and the young couple, who nobody seemed to get to know at all and quite frankly everyone was confused on why such a young couple would be at a couple’s therapy retreat. 

“This morning, even though we are missing some special souls, we will be immersing ourselves into book therapy. The written word will help us express ourselves in ways we can’t express ourselves sometimes out loud.” Tinswell paused and smiled serenely; she nodded several times. “Using the words of someone you greatly admire might help you approach your partner in a new light and it might benefit everyone.”

Finch looked uncomfortable sitting on a pillow. He looked to be half in physical and emotional discomfort; this was clearly a man that belonged in a chair. Zoe could pull off the pillow better, she an amused look on her face. The fake married couple exchanged a quick glance to each other and then looked over to Tinswell. Finch looked extremely awkward on the pillow, no matter which position he tried to sit in.

Tinswell tapped on her iPad, she scrolled for a bit until she found what she was looking for; she then turned to Zoe. 

“Zoe, here is one of your favorite books, ‘Eat, Pray, Love.’ Can you read this passage out loud for everyone and focus on your partner.” She handed Zoe the iPad. “Take five deep breathes before reading. Deep, long breathes. Feel the air entering and leaving your heart and lungs.” 

Zoe turned to face Finch with a slight grin on her face. She liked ‘Eat, Play, Love’, it wasn’t her favorite book but it could have been worse she supposed. She took a deep breath as instructed by Tinswell before reading the passage. 

_“You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select your clothes every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That's the only thing you should be trying to control.”_

Zoe smiled at Finch, then handed the iPad back to Tinswell. 

“Excellent work Zoe,” Tinswell smiled warmly to Zoe. “Now it’s your turn Harold, I’m sorry Mr. Bushtit.” She turned to Finch and then discreetly she shook her head. “Apologies, I forgot you prefer your full name.”

Finch squinted his eyes, he had no doubt he had Ms. Groves or Ms. Shaw to thank for that note in the good doctor’s paperwork.

“Mr. Bushtit you will be reading a passage from your favorite book…” Tinswel put on her glasses to stare at her iPad more closely. “Which is…hmmm…uhhh…’50 Shades of Grey’…how…liberating?” She said, really surprised. A few other people in the room seemed surprised, too.

Tinswell handed over the iPad to Finch so could begin reading. She looked quite skeptical and nervous at the highlighted passage to be read. 

“Remember to focus on your partner…” Tinswell did not say this part as meaningful as she had said to Zoe. She forced a smile at Finch.

Finch took a deep breath, he felt like he could almost hear the Machine cackling somewhere in his earpiece faintly. Again, no doubt Ms. Grove, Ms. Shaw and possibly the Machine were behind this tacky selection of fiction. He cleared his throat, adjusted his glasses, took a deep breathe and paused for as long as he thought he could get away with before having to read. 

_’His breathing is ragged, matching mine.’_

Finch paused and looked over to Tinswell, the look on his face was pleading to stop. Tinswell just urged him to continue reading.  
Finch frowned. Zoe had a really hard time holding down a big smile and almost laughed out loud. She wanted to remember not to piss off Root. Or Shaw. Or the Machine. Mostly Root though. 

_‘When did you start your period, Anastasia?’ he asks out of the blue, gazing down at me._ _‘Err… yesterday,’ I mumble in my highly aroused state._ _‘Good.’ He releases me and turns me around._ _‘Hold on to the sink,’ he orders and pulls my hips back again, like he did in the playroom, so I’m bending down.’_

Finch paused and adjusted his glasses again. He feared what horrible text was coming next. He prayed the Machine would get him out of reading and finishing the scene. He sat frozen, waiting for an intervention from the Machine. Or Reese. Or Bear. Anything so he wouldn’t have to read the next passage. 

The room and his earpiece remained painfully silent with all eyes in the room watching him.

_’He reaches between my legs and pulls on the blue string… what!’_

Finch stopped reading and looked at the text again. “That was actually written by the author. The ‘what’ part.” 

He felt like he needed to clarify in case someone in the group thought he was adding nonsensical exclamation points. And ellipses. He had never seen so many ellipses in one piece of writing in his life. 

Tinswell watched Finch; she nudged him to continue the reading. “Please, continue Mr. Bushtit.” 

Finch raised his eyebrows, furrowed his brow and started reading again from his extremely erotic text. 

_’And…he gently pulls my tampon out and tosses it into the nearby toilet. Holy fuck. Sweet mother of all…,’_ Finch stopped reading, he looked over to Tinswell. He moved around on his uncomfortable pillow. 

“There are more ellipses. Six more to be exact, I’m sure they must be added for…dramatic effect.” He shook his head and furrowed his brow. 

“Thank you, Mr. Bushtit. Please, continue,” Tinswell spoke softly; she then leaned on her elbow as if really studying Finch now. 

_’Jeez. And then he’s inside me…ah!’_ Finch’s ‘ah’ was the most stiff performance of any school production of a terribly scripted play ever. _’Skin against skin…moving slowly at first…easily, testing me, pushing me…oh my. I grip on to the sink, panting, forcing myself back on him, feeling him inside me. Oh the sweet agony…’_

“There are more ellipses.” Finch began to visibly cringe when he saw an ellipse. He did indeed look like he was in agony. The Machine made sure to snap some photos from Tinswell’s iPad to send to Root and Shaw. 

_’His hands clasp my hips. He sets a punishing rhythm – in, out, and he reaches around and finds my clitoris, massaging me… oh jeez.’_

“Just wanted to clarify, the ‘jeez’ was written in the…prose,” Finch inwardly groaned realizing he was now adding his own ellipses. His vision seemed blurry, he felt like he was getting tunnel vision. Sweat poured off his face. 

“C’mon, honey. Just finish the scene,” Zoe said in a rather amused tone. 

_’I can feel myself quicken._ _“That’s right, baby,” he rasps as he grinds into me, angling his hips, and it’s enough to send me flying, flying high.’_

Finch said the word ‘high’ in a higher pitch tone taking everyone in the group off guard. Everyone in the group stared at Finch with bewildered faces. 

“She has a way with…prose...” Finch gritted through his teeth. He was sorry he accidentally shot Shaw. Twice. Did Root and the Machine have to be tactless? They could have at least chosen a Jackie Collins novel. 

*****

Shaw was on top of Root, alternating between sucking and biting her neck while her hands were busy multitasking central key areas. The hacker writhed below her; she wrapped her legs around Shaw’s waist tightly, then grabbed a handful of dark, silky hair and gently tugged on it. 

“Bear!” Root suddenly said very loudly. 

“I thought you might go with my name or a descriptive adjective, but uh…Bear?”

“No, sorry Sweetie. I was just thinking…” Root looked into Shaw’s eyes, she stopped her ministrations and looked annoyed. “…what if we faked Bear’s death? That might be good revenge for Finch.” Root ran her fingers through Shaw’s sweaty, sexy hair. 

“No, do not bring my dog into this Rovenge plan. Do you really think faking someone’s death is going to teach that blowhard a lesson?” Root had a thoughtful look on her face as Shaw asked this question. 

“Actually, that reminds me of another plan, I’ll have to tell you one day,” Root had a sly smile on her face. 

“Plus, I don’t think Finch really cares about Bear.”

Shaw started kissing Root again. Then stopped kissing Root. This time it was Root’s turn to groan, Shaw had just started sucking on her tongue. 

“What if we super glue all his laptops together?” Shaw asked out loud, not just to Root; she thought maybe the Machine was listening. 

“Really Sameen? That’s the best you got?” Root let out a giggle. 

Shaw scowled down at Root. 

“Okay, it has promise. I haven’t figured out his real name yet, but I think I have his birthday narrowed down to a month radius. That will freak him out if we send him balloons and cookie bouquets every day that month. Maybe even a singing telegram or a stripper?” Root pushed her hips into Shaw’s hips, sweat and other bodily fluids sliding against each other in a completely, pleasurable distracting way. 

“Wow, your rovenge plots are so lame. When we get back to New York, I’m giving Bear all of Finch’s first editions to chew on,” Shaw pushed her hips back hard against Root.

Root let out a loud moan and closed her eyes. “I’ll make sure every beverage cart and bodega within a ten-mile radius of the subway has incorrect Sencha green tea.” She breathed out slowly. 

“You know you could make things a lot easier and just burn him with an iron,” Shaw ran her hand down Root’s chest and then lower and the lower she went the more feverish the hacker got. 

“Oh, Sweetie…” Root ran one hand down Shaw’s side going further down her leg, then circling back and tracing the inside of her thigh. “…the iron is only reserved for you…foreplay.” She has having a hard time getting words out now because of what Shaw was doing. 

“Damn, better be,” Shaw leaned down and captured Root’s lower lip in between her lips and bit down. 

Root moaned out, her hand reaching between Shaw’s legs. 

“Jellyfish!” Shaw yelled out when Root slipped two fingers inside. 

Root looked at Shaw confused and a bit offended. 

“I’ve got it. We will find the jellyfish that stung me force Finch out into the ocean and get him stung. Perfect payback,” Shaw lunged for Root’s lips and placed a sloppy open-mouthed kiss on her lips. 

“Sweetie, what if it has the same side effects it had on you?” Root pulled away from the kiss and gave a scrunched disgusted nose face. 

“Good point. Plus, I don’t know how easy it would be to wrangle a jellyfish…might be worth a try though. Or dump a few on his lap.” 

Shaw moved her hand back to Root, she could feel how aroused she was stroking through her overflowing vulva volcano. “Is this turning you on?” 

“What revenge plans for Finch? I can’t believe he shot you,” Root stared up into Shaw’s eyes. She looked serious, almost scared. 

“It was barely anything,” Shaw moved her hand from Root’s breast to poke the hacker in the side, almost tickling her. 

Before Root could say another word Shaw leaned down again and kissed her fiercely. Kissing her hard enough they were both getting light headed from the lack of oxygen and the heat of a tongue battle going on between them. They stayed tangled up and twisted around each other for so long they didn’t hear the incessant knocking on the outer door for a few minutes. 

Shaw moved to roll off Root, but Root stopped her. “Not yet,” she pulled her down into another searing kiss. 

The knocking continued. Shaw sighed and reluctantly got up off Root, but not before bending back down and capturing Root’s lips in another kiss. The knocking got louder. Shaw looked around and grabbed some shorts and a tank top. 

“Better get dressed too,” Shaw looked over her shoulder at Root watching her from the bed; all splayed out like a sated super model. She didn’t want to leave the room, yet she did know they had work to do. She closed the bedroom door and headed to the living room. 

Shaw opened the door and saw a smug Joan on the other side of the door. She thought, why in the hell was the nosy woman already smug? She hadn’t caught them with their shorts down, yet. Although, Shaw did wonder how thin the walls were, they were kind of loud a few minutes ago. She blamed Root. 

Joan looked at Shaw, the petite primary asset had messed up hair, flush cheeks, slightly dilated pupils and was very sweaty. She thought to herself, oh yeah; these two aren’t sick at all. These two cheaters have been in here banging all morning and she was going to prove it at some point. If she couldn’t have either one of them, then she was calling them out on their cheating. 

“I thought this was Sam and John’s room?” Joan looked at Shaw closely. 

“It is,” Shaw replied blank faced, not adding any more information. 

“Ah, you poor thing. You look really sweaty,” Joan pushed her way into the room even though she wasn’t invited. 

“My fever just broke,” Shaw said again blank faced, hoping the nosy woman would get the hint and leave. 

“You ran a fever?” Joan asked in a fake concerned voice. 

“I did, so did Sam,” Shaw really couldn’t stand this smug nosy woman. “Hers just broke too.” 

“I could give a rub down, might help you cool off,” Joan’s eyes ran up and down Shaw’s body. 

“Already had some rubbing, thanks anyway,” Shaw stood still; she didn’t want Joan any further into the room. 

Root walked out of the bedroom, looking a little flushed, not as much as Shaw thought, but just as physically guilty. Her hair was up in a ponytail; she was wearing cargo shorts with a loose fitting V-neck flowing blouse type of shirt. The hacker had a very tropical, vacation look going on. 

“Hi, Joan,” Root was already laying on the charm thick in her voice. “Did you come to check on us? That’s so kind of you. We thought we would hunker down here together. A lot of bodily fluids outpouring everywhere.” She pointed to the two bathrooms in the hotel suite. 

“Oh, that sounds terrible,” Joan wasn’t buying this at all. “Lot of stomach cramping?”

“Not so much cramping as clenching,” Root returned smugly. “Lots of hard clenching, it was intense. I’m feeling much better now.” The red flush of an afterglow still glittered around Root’s face; she smiled over to Shaw, who in return rolled her eyes. 

“I’m sure your husbands will be happy to hear you’re feeling better and ready to join in the next therapy session,” Joan said in a fake voice. “Shall we go?” She motioned to the door.

Shaw rolled her eyes as Root passed by her smiling; all three of them exited the room and headed towards the next therapy session. Shaw really hoped the next one was Target Shooting Therapy, but she highly doubted it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sort of ripped off the reading of the famous tampon scene, although I didn't know that until after I wrote it. :-) I would imagine Finch is a cross between David Sedaris and George Takei, yet way more awkward – and if you haven’t heard either of their readings of this scene, I highly recommend them on Youtube. Also, while on there if you haven't seen ['Fifty Shades Of Gay' ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=capldg95apg) take on the scene, it's really funny.


	20. Cooking Therapy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the comments!! :-) Thank you so much to SloanGreyMercyDeath for the proof read! 
> 
> Part of this chapter was an homage/rip-off from a scene from The Proposal. I might have jumped the shark ;-) Don't worry, it's going to be wrapped up soon.

As Root and Shaw followed behind Joan down the hallway, the assistant kept staring at Shaw over her shoulder. Shaw was trying to hide a limp and failing. 

“Sammy, I didn’t notice the bandage. What happened to your leg?” Joan asked with actual concern in her voice. 

Root had noticed Shaw’s limp as well and thought she must be in some pain. Seeing Shaw limp just made Root even angrier at Finch. She wanted to reach out and help Shaw in some way, but also knew that would only make her angry and not the fun kind of angry. Root didn’t want to upset what had been going on this trip with between them. 

She got lost in her thoughts thinking how just minutes before they had been so tightly wrapped around each other that she felt something she had never felt before, a feeling that scared the shit out of her. She knew before coming here that she already had an attachment to Shaw. Root never wanted Shaw to get her hurt and now she knew she would lay down her life if it meant Shaw never got hurt. She couldn’t imagine a world that didn’t include Shaw. Root didn’t want to even think about the possibility of the ‘L’ word. 

Sadness washed over Root when she realized they could be leaving today or tomorrow and then things would be go back to the way they used to be with Shaw. The world would still have Shaw in it, she just wouldn’t get to kiss and have sex with her all the time. Yet it was a world with Shaw and a world with Shaw in any form was better than a world without Shaw. Shaw’s voice broke Root out of her thoughts. 

“It was part of the food poisoning incident,” Shaw said blank faced in hopes that was the end of questioning about her leg injury. 

“How exactly did it happen?” Joan pressed on; she stopped and made Shaw stop so she could look at the bandage closely. “Looks painful. Here let me help you. You did save my life…” Joan gasped. “Oh my gosh, this is from saving me isn’t? You just didn’t want me to feel bad.” Joan pressed her hand over her chest dramatically. 

Wow, Root thought; this woman made it all about her. She’s good, real good. Root wanted to tase the woman and stuff her in a closet. 

Shaw inwardly groaned, this woman was even more annoying Root. “No, I tripped getting to the toilet. I needed to get to the toilet immediately.” 

Root noticed Joan staring at Shaw longingly, almost with literal heart eyes and smirked. 

“There were massive amounts of diarrhea. There’s still some lingering around.” Shaw hoped this would scare off the annoying assistant from hitting on her anymore. 

“It was all night long,” Root added with double meaning subtext of course. 

Shaw caught the subtext and half-rolled her eyes. She only did the half roll, because it was the best sex she’d ever had.

As they continued on their walk through the maze of hallways, both Root and Shaw looked annoyed to be following Joan to yet another silly ass therapy session. 

“Joan, how are you doing after the attack yesterday?” Root asked, clocking the new clipboard. “And I see you have a new clipboard?”

“I’m doing better, thanks for finally asking.” Joan said, glancing over her shoulder at them. “We started to get worried about you two last night. You both disappeared as the storm hit and we didn’t see you for the rest of the night.” Joan said accusingly. She glared over her shoulder at them. 

“We were hunkered down, trying to stay safe and dry. We ended up really wet though,” Root glanced quickly over to Shaw, who remained blank face not even rolling her eyes at the salacious remark. 

Shaw found herself not really annoyed by Root’s remark because her distaste for Joan was so strong. 

All three of them eventually made their way across the resort property to the room where the sessions were being held for the day. Everyone was on a break after the book therapy session. Tinswell was off in the corner talking privately with the Roth couple. This raised both Root and Shaw’s eyebrows; they glanced at each other before Joan started babbling on again. 

“Oh, look here are your husbands,” Joan looked over Reese and Fusco. “Wonder where they have been?”

Reese and Fusco arrived looking between Root and Shaw cautiously. Reese leaned in carefully and kissed Root on the cheek, playing the dutiful fake husband. Root gave Reese her best-forced cold smile. Shaw gave Fusco the stink eye so he just patted her on the back. 

Finch and Zoe wandered over to them. The group was all together again and Joan was the odd person out.

“Glad to see everyone could attend this session. That food poisoning incident must have been really bad,” Joan eyed Root and Shaw, both struggling to remain impassive. “I guess as bad as the storm.”

The whole group was starting to look really tan on their seventh day at the resort. Root and Shaw, despite sleep deprivation from last night’s activities and injuries, had a small glow about them. That didn’t seem to go unnoticed by their fellow teammates. 

There was uncomfortable silence as no one was saying anything at all. Root kept glancing at Finch with murderous glare in her eyes. 

“So glad to hear Ms. Joan that you weren’t hurt in your assault,” Finch said politely, “Did you get a good look at your attackers?”

“No, they were wearing masks. I still can’t believe they attacked me and only took my clipboard and not my purse,” Joan said very puzzled. 

There was more silence as the team just stared at each other, willing Joan to leave them alone. They thought they would get lucky when surprisingly; Tinswell left the room, yet Joan still didn’t leave the room or the immediate area. Finch started getting annoyed. 

“I’m sure you have to prepare for this next session. We don’t want to keep you,” Finch said forcing politeness again. He really did hope the annoying woman would leave so they could talk briefly before the session started. 

Joan just smiled at him and made some notes on her new clipboard. Finch realized he needed to use another tactic. 

“Ms. Joan, could I please trouble you for a cup of Sencha green tea?” asked Finch in his most polite voice. 

Joan gave them a fake smile, “Of course, Mr. Bushtit,” she said as she put her pen away and clutched her clipboard to her chest. She moved away from the group to exit but then paused and turned around to stare at Reese and Fusco. “You two might want to keep a better eye on your wives. Make sure they don’t eat anything inappropriate.”

Reese and Fusco just smirked to each other. It was unspoken between them that no one not even Root or Shaw themselves could keep an eye on each other, although those two were the most likely to succeed on each other. 

Root followed after Joan quickly and opened the door for her, then grabbed her arm and whispered something in her ear. Joan smiled at Root as she left the room to get Finch’s tea. Root walked back to the group with her own fake smile. 

“Ms. Groves, what did you say to Joan?” Finch asked to Root.

Before Root could answer Shaw spoke. “I’m going to shoot that woman.” 

“Not in the shoulder though,” Root stared at Shaw with unabashed heart eyes. With Joan out of the room, she didn’t need to pretend so hard. Root felt protective over the shoulder area. It was their thing.

“Fine, I’ll shoot her in the knee,” Shaw shrugged. 

“It’s a classic and gets the job done,” Reese replied with shrug and tug of a smile on his lips. 

Finch sighed, resigned to not getting an answer from Root. He switched topics. “We have to talk quickly before your next session starts.” He glanced around to the whole team.

“What do mean ‘your session’?” Root asked with disdain to Finch. 

“I’m going to do some research. Ms. Morgan and I will talk with Dr. Tinswell for excusing ourselves for the rest of the sessions,” Finch said this quickly and hoped there would be no discourse. 

“Over my shot leg. No way,” Shaw said firmly, crossing her arms.

“I’ll do the research. You’re staying,” Root also crossed her arms and glared at Finch.

Finch looked back and fourth between his two female teammates, completely intimidated by them. 

Shaw didn’t like Root’s idea. “No, we are all staying. Get the Machine to do the research,” Shaw said quickly and under her breath so no one would hear outside their team. Although, it looked like the other three couples weren’t paying attention to them at all. 

“I checked the data before we came over here. The cable is back up and running with no glitches.” Root stared scarily at Finch. “So you’re not going anywhere Harry.”

Reese leaned into Finch and whispered in his ear, “I think she knows you shot Shaw in the leg. I would watch your back.” 

Root walked over to the circle of chairs, Reese followed behind is fake wife. 

Fusco stepped closer to Shaw. “Hey, honey. Feeling better?” The detective asked cautiously. 

“You better watch it too _honey_ ,” Shaw seethed at Fusco. 

“What the hell did I do? I didn’t even tease you about wanting to have a threesome in the car or wanting Root to call you baby.” Fusco pleaded his case passionately; he looked pretty scared of his fake wife. 

Shaw’s eyes went wide open. She then grabbed Fusco’s arm and twisted. “What?”

Root looked over at Shaw twisting Fusco’s arm so she slowly, without drawing attention to herself walked over to them. “Sweetie, I would let go of your hubby.”

“Root, why didn’t you tell me that apparently I did more jellyfish antics stuff again under the influence?” Shaw gritted out between her teeth. 

“You didn’t really want a threesome with Fusco and I, that was his distasteful male gaze interpretation,” Root said while putting her hand on Shaw’s arm and turning her around to walk towards taking a seat in the circle. Then Root whispered in Shaw’s ear, “We’ll go shoot something later.” 

“What?” Shaw enunciated the ‘T’ harshly as she glared harshly at Root. She continued to stare at Root with a completely bewildered expression on her face, which also morphed into rage very quickly. She didn’t want to hear anymore, apparently being under any kind of influence while on this island and within a four-foot radius of Root caused her mind and libido to go into hyper overdrive. 

Shaw sat down in a chair next to Root. She couldn’t help but keep thinking of Root’s warm breath on her ear, her hand on her arm and her general close proximity and how those things sent a shiver down Shaw’s spine. Shaw gritted her teeth despite the pleasant sensation in her body, her plan of getting Root of her system with copious amounts of sex didn’t seem to be working. Over the course of two and half days they had sex twice as many times as Shaw’s normal rule and she still wasn’t tired of Root yet. If anything, she wanted her more. There had to be more of a logical explanation Shaw thought, she suspected prolonged after effects from the jellyfish. Or she thought maybe it was the Hawaiian heat and humidity. Or the fact Root keeps wearing shorts and bikinis. The biggest suspect was that damn jellyfish. Shaw thought, once she was safely back in New York, things will be different and she will be able to think more clearly. Root would be wearing big coats and scarves. And perhaps even that dorky snow-stocking hat. And at least there won’t be some awkward talk with Root since they have an arranged user end agreement. She hoped this session would end quickly so she could grab Root and they could continue their sex quest. 

Tinswell entered the room, looking serene as always. She was wearing another demure slacks and blouse with a sheer flowing type of robe thing over both of them, a real Dorothy Zbornak style going on. She looked around the room and smiled warmly to all the couples. All the couples sat in the circle of chairs. Finch was grateful chairs had replaced the pillows. 

“So very nice to have everyone back in the session. We’ve had quite the last twenty-four hours. The storm. Joan’s attack. And then Sam and Sammy’s food poisoning,” Tinswell let out a dramatic sigh, she smiled warmly at everyone again. “I’m very grateful and thankful we are all here together again.” Tinswell let out a long breath, a true breath of relief for all that had happened over the course of the last day. She put her hands over her heart and took some deeper breathes. 

Joan entered the room holding a cup of tea. She walked to Finch and gave it to him. He mouthed a thank you to Joan and then took a sip. Root and Shaw were watching closely when he took a sip. As soon as Finch took a sip of the tea; his face became distorted with disgust and revulsion that he didn’t hide very well. 

Shaw leaned over the back of Root’s chair to whisper in her non-Cochlear implant ear and to get a good whiff of signature Root smell. “What kind of tea is Finch gagging on?”

“Cilantro peppermint tea,” Root turned her head slightly, she then realized her mistake, as her lips were mere inches from Shaw’s mouth; she wanted so badly to kiss her again. She could make kissing Shaw a full-time job, the petite primary asset really did have the most alluring, amazing lips she had ever seen. 

Shaw made a disgusted face at the tea. She the noticed how close Root’s lips were to her lips. And she noticed that Root was staring hard at her lips. Then Root bit her lower lip. That Root lower lip bite was fast becoming her undoing. She stared back at Root’s lips until Tinswell’s voice broke her out of her lip lusting haze. 

“We are going to share the wonderful stories on how your unions came together. We will go around the circle and share how each couple got engaged.” Tinswell clasped her hands together and leaned forward on her elbows, her eyes wondering over all the couples. 

Six certain people did not look excited about this storytelling exercise at all. And they held off as long as they could, letting the other three couples go first in sharing their proposal stories. Fred and Betty’s proposal story was pretty standard; he asked during a moonlight stroll after securing her parent’s blessings. Craig and Gina Roth didn’t really have a proposal story as they met and got married within a few days of meeting in Vegas on a whim. The younger couple had the most traditional proposal and engagement with a big wedding and reception at a country club. 

Shaw tried hard to stay awake, all the stories were pretty boring and Root had kept her up all night. Every time she almost dozed off, Root would brush up against her ‘accidentally’ and it would set off senses and memories of last night would flood her body; thus, jolting her more awake. She wondered if Root knew she had this effect on her. Of course she did, the hacker had a smug look on her face every time she did it. Root was going to pay for these accidental brush-ups later alone in private. 

Root was struggling really hard at staying awake during the rather dull proposal stories of the other attending couples. Was domesticity really this vapid and boring? The only thing keeping her awake was teasing Shaw. Bumping into her ‘accidentally’ on purpose, running her fingers down her arm or along her bare thigh where her shorts stopped and showed off her lean muscular legs. She couldn’t stop thinking about last night and dared to dream of a repeat performance tonight, although that seemed highly unlikely due to the fact they were in another session and had one more after this one. And then the team needed to meet and strategize on figuring out what was going on the island and how Samaritan was involved. One highlight from last night was Shaw falling asleep in her arms, she would probably deny it but it did happen. Root could feel the warmth spread through her body just thinking of having Shaw in her arms again. 

Tinswell’s voice startled Root and she turned to the therapist quickly. She didn’t have enough time to hide her sheepish grin at having been caught daydreaming and not really listening. 

“Sam, could you please share you and John’s proposal story now.” Tinswell smiled warmly at Root, who returned the smile. 

Root paused for a moment; she turned to Reese and really studied him. She decided she could have a little payback fun right now. She sat back in her chair, had her hands in laps and got a big grin on her face. 

“John, went all out. It was like out of a Youtube video that goes viral, so romantic,” Root started, she could tell Shaw perked up a little and everyone else seemed intrigued.

“Let me guess…flash mob proposal?” Coached Shaw with an evil glee in her eyes, she could have some fun at her Mayhem Twin’s expense. Reese’s not completely forthcoming take on how she got shot in the leg to Root really pissed her off. 

“Yes! He just looks like a flash mob kinda guy, right?” Root’s face lit up with Shaw adding to her fake marriage proposal to Reese. 

Reese couldn’t even hold down his cringing at all. He had a huge annoyed look on his face. He raised his eyebrows to his fake wife. He remained quiet though, fearing any interruption would cause more payback from his two female teammates. 

“It was so wildly romantic. One afternoon, I was walking along…” Root paused with a sly grin as she turned to Shaw. 

“Disneyland,” Shaw interjected again with an evil twinkle to her eyes. She didn’t even care if the fake couple had any close relationship to the magical place on earth, she just had a feeling Reese wasn’t a fan. 

“Will you let my wife tell the story,” Reese politely said to Shaw, he didn’t want any more of her additions to his fake proposal story; even despite the possible payback. 

“I did already share this story with Sammy here…” Root made a motion of putting her hand on Shaw’s thigh as a friendly gesture, too friendly of course, “…while we sipping some Lave Lube drinks.”

“Flow…Lava Flow drinks,” Shaw corrected Root quickly while giving her best fake smile to the group. And hoped no one would notice Root’s lingering hand on her thigh; although, she saw Joan scribbling down notes on her damn clipboard. 

Root removed her hand from Shaw’s thigh, almost missing the contact. “So, I was strolling through…Disneyland, I can’t even imagine the planning it took for getting permission at the happiest place on earth. And my John made it even happier, which I didn’t think was possible,” Root said while leaning into Reese and squeezing his hand as he did his fake best smile. 

“Because he took you on the It’s A Small World ride,” Shaw really couldn’t control herself, she loved seeing Reese squirm and Root almost giddy with her additions to the fake story. 

“Yes, John led me to the ride…” Root paused, then smirked. “…It’s A Small World After All…I would have preferred the Pirates of the Caribbean ride…” Root stared at Reese then added with a smirk, “…but It’s A Small World After All is John’s favorite place in the whole world.”

Reese did his best fake smile, which his teammates knew was basically him chewing the inside of his mouth. 

“Well, my world has never been small since John entered into my life. He’s made my world so full of life,” Root smiled at John, then her eyes betrayed her and she glanced very quickly at Shaw. 

Shaw could do without these kinds of embellishments; she wanted more Reese doing silly ass stupid things. 

“Beautiful sentiment Sam,” said Tinswell while smiling genuinely and nodding to Root to continue. 

“We were going along the ride when things looked a little different than last time I was on it. Suddenly, all the robot children came to life and started serenading us. It was like a G-rated version of Westworld with no guns, buckets of bloodshed or gratuitous nudity.”

Everyone seemed a little surprised by this turn of events in the proposal story. 

“They weren’t really robotic children, John had gotten a children’s choir to serenade us through the ride,” Root reached over and grabbed onto John’s hand. 

“Let me guess, the kids of the world were throwing flowers at you and blowing kisses?” asked Fusco with a mischievous grin on his face. 

Root’s face lit up, she was after all the least angry with Fusco. “Yes! They were Lionel. Did John tell you this story?”

Reese shot Fusco an angry, frustrated look. 

Root ran her fingers over John’s hand. “John had tears in his eyes, he said to me that his world was small indeed without me in it. The children of the world all came together and sang to us all the way through until we got outside.”

Shaw interrupted very quickly and added with a smug grin, “Then they broke out into a Coldplay song.”

Reese let out the biggest sigh as he snapped his head to Shaw. “Uh, Sammy…you ruined my wife’s surprise there.” The fake husband looked completely exasperated by this fake proposal story. 

Root sent a high wattage smile to Shaw, “Who knew that It’s A Small World morphs so seamlessly into Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall.”

“Coldplay? Really?” asked Fusco with a scrunched up nose face, clearly he was disappointed with the music selection of the fake proposal. 

“It was the perfect song. _’Every siren is a symphony…you can hurt me bad…but still I’ll raise the flag’_ ,” Root glanced over and did a sly grin to Shaw of course, this time the Mayhem Twins together tried to hold down grimaces with fake smiles towards the group. 

“That pretty much wraps up the story,” said Reese, he clapped his hands together as if this motion brought the fake story to a close. 

“Did the kids do the whole song? Did John dance with them?” asked Shaw with a smug grin, she wasn’t done with Reese yet. 

Root gave Shaw a wicked smile. Reese looked like he was passing a kidney stone. Tinswell seemed intrigued by this elaborate proposal as well as the rest of the group. Joan sat off to the side taking notes, giving side eye to the whole group. 

“Actually, John got all our friends and family there too. They were all dancing and singing in the Disneyland streets. Oh! I almost forgot the other best part, John brought along some of his rescue cats there and one special guy, Pookie, walked over to me with the engagement ring tied his neck,” Root leaned into Reese who looked as if he was leaning away from his fake wife. 

“How did you get a cat into Disneyland?” asked Fusco, the look on his face it was apparent the story went off the rails or jumped the shark at this point. 

“Pookie was smuggled inside a Pooh Bear costume,” Root said solving the fake story predicament. 

Shaw jumped in once again, treating the telling of this fake proposal story like it was a live action game of mad ad-libs. “Then John put the Pooh Bear costume on.”

“He did! Then he serenaded me with Beyonce’s ‘Halo’ while dressed as Pooh Bear, holding Pookie in his arms and openly sobbing.” Root loved the additions Shaw was adding. “John has a lovely voice. It was a very special day.” She then squeezed Reese’s hand as he sat there looking like someone was stabbing him in the leg. 

The whole room sat for a few minutes, a little speechless by the grand scale of the fake proposal. Before Tinswell could pick the next couple to go, Fusco spoke up unexpectedly and very loudly. 

“I know the man is supposed to propose but my Sammy is a real feminist,” Fusco pointed to his fake wife with a proud smile. 

Shaw yanked on Fusco’s arm so she could whisper in his ear, “Lionel, don’t you dare come up with some silly ass story like Root.” She threatened her fake hubby.

“Hey, you derailed her story,” Fusco whispered back to Shaw. 

“And you’re about ten seconds from a bullet in your knee,” Shaw growled at Fusco before he leaned back in his chair to continue his fake proposal story. 

Shaw shot Root a glare with her eyes squinted a few times for added effect. She was trying to convey that if Root added on silly ass embellishments to make her look goofy, she was going to pay big time later. 

“We went out bowling one night, Sammy was already knocked up with our second child Lionel Jr.,” Fusco said as he looked at his fake wife fondly. 

Shaw gritted her teeth. She didn’t know if it was carrying Fusco’s SECOND child out of wedlock or that they were bowling together that made her angrier. 

“We bowled our first set then when the balls returned back to us from the machine thing, I noticed they looked different. One ball had ‘Marry’ written on it and the other ball had ‘Me’ written on it. I said sure, and we both bowled strikes,” Fusco said with a smug smile. 

Shaw would have never thought she would ever want to be a part of a flash mob marriage proposal in Disneyland of all places, but Lionel’s fake story actually had her wishing that. She shook her head. 

“Lionel, you’re forgetting the best part,” Root smiled at Fusco and then to Tinswell. “Sammy shared her story over those Lava Flow drinks too.” 

Fusco looked dumbfounded at Root. 

“Sammy, had told me after she proposed to Lionel, the bowling alley was held at gunpoint and she single-handedly took down the two robbers with her skills she learned at her Mommy & Me Defense classes.”

Shaw looked slightly less angry now after Root’s addition to the fake proposal story. She crossed her arms against her chest and shrugged. Shaw thought to herself, it would not be hard to take down two idiots who decided to steal from a crowded bowling alley. 

“That’s so impressive Sammy. You’re like Wonder Woman without the lasso,” Tinswell said proudly as she gave a little clap to Shaw. 

Root spoke up one more time, “And then to show his appreciation, Lionel here did a Full Monty dance show to the whole bowling league and all the other patrons of the establishment for his wife to be.” Root shot Fusco a mischievous deadly stare. “Of course using a bowling bowl in place of a hat.”

Tinswell stood quiet for a moment, processing both stories. “That was quite a night at the bowling alley. Thank you for sharing Lionel and Sammy.”

All the eyes room landed on Finch and Zoe, the last couple to share how they got engaged. Finch looked uncomfortable, Zoe looked cool as ever; nothing really got under that woman’s skin. 

“Hey, Bushtit. Spill it,” barked Shaw to Finch, who looked mildly horrified at her brute forced question and his vulgar sounding cover name. 

Finch sat frozen for a minute, and then turned to the group. “Oh, it’s such a intimate story. I’m not sure anyone would want to hear,” Finch’s mind went blank. He actually had proposed to someone in his life and she said yes. He didn’t want to share that story. He stayed silent for too long, everyone stared at him. 

Root then realized this actually be really hard for her fellow teammate, even though she was mad at him she knew he desperately missed Grace and this hit a hurtful spot. She looked over to Zoe who took the cue. 

“Harold is being modest. He flew us to Paris for a week. We had the most amazing day together and then he proposed at the top of the Eiffel Tower with a small quintet playing ‘Moon River’ as we stared out over the city,” Zoe smiled to the group of people, she patted Finch’s arm gently. 

“Moon River? Seems a tad cliché choice,” Finch scoffed a bit. 

“Do you want to tell the story… _honey_?” Zoe vaguely threatened Finch. 

Shaw got that rare surprised look on her face, which was truly adorable even though it usually meant that she was gleeful at someone else’s embarrassment or torture.

“No, thank you…my darling. Thank you for sharing the story.” Finch put on a very forced smile towards his fake wife.

Thankfully, for the team the session ended and they got a break. They all went outside discreetly as possible so they could talk. The outside bar made for good cover. Shaw ordered food and drinks for herself, and then Fusco nudged his way in too to place an order. Root walked over to stand next to Fusco and pick food off his plate, which the detective grumbled on and on about. 

“Finch, the undersea cable is fixed. We might not have any more threats here. Samaritan could have moved on,” Reese said to team while looking at Finch. “Maybe we head back to New York?”

Hearing Reese say that statement was a hard, hurtful punch in the stomach to Root. She didn’t want to leave Hawaii yet; she didn’t want to lose Shaw yet. 

Shaw hadn’t expected Reese’s statement to get to her. New York. She didn’t want to leave for New York tomorrow; she wanted to have sex with Root a few more times. Even being almost super glued to the annoying hacker for a week wasn’t that terrible. 

Before she even knew she was responding, words starting shooting out of Shaw’s mouth. “There is still something here. I think we need to get to the bottom of it before we go back to New York.”

“I agree,” Root said, she might have replied too quickly so she tried to cover her enthusiasm on staying on the island in a casual shorts attire Shaw. “Samaritan took Joan’s clipboard for a reason. We need to know why before we leave.”

Before they could say anything else, the person Root was just talking was descending upon them fast. Joan walked briskly to the outdoor bar where three of the couples were conjugating. 

“Well, the six of you have formed fast friendships like this was summer camp,” Joan said in a snotty tone. “I do hope all of you keep in touch when you go back home.” The assistant came up to stand too close to Shaw. “It’s time for the next session, hope you didn’t eat too much to spoil your meals.” 

The team looked around at each other confused, afraid to know what the next session entailed. They all started to follow Joan back inside the resort.

Root followed behind Shaw, it was her favorite view. Root watched Shaw walking unevenly. 

“Hey, if you need to rest and get off the leg…” Root had leaned into Shaw to whisper, she was getting concerned that Shaw hadn’t gotten much rest from her injury just earlier this morning. 

“No, I’m fine,” Shaw replied back annoyed. She wanted to shoot a metal dart into Finch’s leg just about now. 

The next session was set up in one of the resort kitchens with six different cooking workstation areas for each couple. There were all kinds of ingredients and food all over the counters for each workstation area. Each couple found their labeled workstation area and went to go stand by it. 

Reese raised his eyebrows to Root looking at the pounds and pounds of cheese on their cooking area. Shaw noticed a lot of familiar ingredients on her and Fusco’s cooking area. And Finch looked aghast at some of the items placed at his and Zoe’s cooking workstation. 

Tinswell stood in front of all the cooking workstations and got everyone’s attention. 

“I’m going to quote from the wonderful, fabulous Chef and Therapist Kami Redd,” Tinswell put on her reading glasses and began reading from a notebook: 

_’Cooking Therapy is a way for people to experience a heightened relationship with each other through food. It helps couples connect on a deeper interpersonal level. Stimulating the five senses leads to great brain development and better physical contact.’_

The team looked around at each other. Root stared hard at Shaw who was too busy scanning all the cooking areas and cataloging all the ingredients at the six different workstations. Root couldn’t help think how much Shaw loved food and that brought a warm genuine smile to her lips. She wished she were cooking with Shaw. 

Shaw glanced over and saw how much cheese was on Root and Reese’s cooking workstation and wanted to be over there. Not because she necessarily wanted to cook with Root, she liked cheese. 

Tinswell carried on reading again: 

_’Cooking Therapy makes use of our ability for touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. All of these senses get a workout in the kitchen and with each other.’_

Root couldn’t let her eyes hungrily track all over Shaw’s body. Shaw caught the tracking mid way through and squinted her eyes at Root. And then slowly, ran her tongue over her bottom lip for Root’s punishment. Root definitely wanted to touch, taste, smell, see and hear everything about Shaw again right now. 

_’Eating together as a couple and the satisfaction of having created a meal while effectively working on your relationship. Improving communication skills and deepening intimacy.’_

This part got a big eye roll from Shaw. Her fake hubby was watching her and chuckled to himself. 

“According to the questionnaire everyone has filled out before the retreat, your partner is going to prepare your favorite dish,” Tinswell smiled delighted at the couples. “We have set up each cooking area fitted with all the ingredients and utensils you will need to craft your partner’s dream culinary delight.”

All of Team Machine turned to Finch, he looked a little scared. “The Machine helped fill in that part on the questionnaire for everyone. Basing on your past purchases and how many times you mention certain food items or meals,” he whispered. 

Everyone on the Team inwardly groaned. Then Shaw looked at Root, who returned a sly grin to her. 

Root walked over to Shaw, feigning interest in their cooking workstation and ingredients. She leaned into Shaw’s ear, “Some adjustments have been made since this morning,” she whispered. 

Shaw narrowed her eyes. She really didn’t want Fusco ruining any of her favorite dishes. And she didn’t want to eat any of Fusco’s cooking. Yet, she did hope that Finch got the most complicated meal to prepare. 

Tinswell walked over and stood in front of Fusco and Shaw’s cooking station. 

“Lionel, you will be preparing Sammy’s beloved Persian favorite dishes Tahdig, a lovely Persian dish of crunchy fried rice along with Soltani, marinated beef in a yogurt blend with onion and lemon juice. Basted with a saffron butter mixture.” Tinswell put her arm around Fusco’s shoulder and gave a gentle, reassuring squeeze. 

Fusco had a completely baffled look on his face; it’s the look he usually saves for Root when he’s completely bewildered by her complete cuckooloo ramblings. 

“Did you know that soltani means royal in the Persian language, a royal dish that your partner is preparing for you.” Tinswell smiled warmly at the fake couple as she looked down at her iPad and then called over Joan to look at something on the electronic device. Tinswell had a confused look on her face reading from her iPad. 

Shaw looked amused. “Considering Fusco is cooking…more like peasant dish. Ain’t got be nothing royal about this,” she looked over all the ingredients that were lined up on the counter. 

Tinswell looked down at her iPad more closely, Joan shook her head too. 

“Sammy, you will be a making Lionel’s favorite…microwave popcorn,” Tinswell seemed surprised by this food item as it required nothing of Shaw except to hit a button and wait two and half minutes. 

Shaw had a shit grinning smile on her face, Root looked rather smug too. 

Root walked over after Tinswell moved onto the younger couple. She whispered to Shaw. “You were assigned to prepare Lionel’s favorite Baked Alaska, ice cream and cake topped with a browned meringue, along with boeuf bourguignon,” Root said in a terrible French accent. “Turns out Fusco is a Julia Childs fan.” 

The detective overheard them, ““My ma was a big fan of Julia Child, she was always making her recipes. Okay, she was always ruining her recipes. 

Shaw was relieved to dodge two super complicated recipes. Now she could heat up Fusco’s microwave popcorn and eat it while he cooked for her; this therapy session wasn’t so bad after all. 

Tinswell moved onto Reese and Root’s cooking workstation set up. They both stood looking down at the ingredients and all the piles of cheese, Reese didn’t look happy.

“John, you will be preparing Sam’s favorite nachos grande with a fourteen layer dip and all the extra toppings for your life mate. Tasty tortilla chips dripping with decadent cheese topped with jalapenos, tomatoes, bell peppers, two kinds of onions and many other veggie accouterments. Plus, queso of course.” 

Reese scrunched up his nose, slightly disgusted; he then turned to Root with raised eyebrows. 

“What? I am from Texas remember? I love melted spicy cheese over tortilla chips. Texas forever.” Root smiled at her fake hubby who looked miserable. 

“And also, her favorite desert…churros,” Tinswell added while looking up from her iPad to give a reassuring smile to Reese. 

Reese rolled his eyes, a rare roll from the stoic tall man. 

“What? I love churros, c’mon John they aren’t that hard to make. Who doesn’t love churros?” Root asked in an innocent, puppy dog way. 

Shaw was almost drooling over the possibility of queso and churros, hey she thought; she was from Texas too. 

Tinswell looked down at her iPad and then focused on Root. 

“Sam, you will be preparing John’s favorite, a grilled cheese sandwich. A traditional, comfort food favorite. Plain white bread with American cheese, buttered on both sides for toasty perfection.” Tinswell smiled at Root and gave her arm a gentle squeeze before moving on to the next couple. 

“John, you really can’t get more vanilla than that. Do you want the crusts cut off too?” Root tilted her head to Reese and gave him a smirk.  
Reese raised his eyebrows to Root. 

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Root admitted that John was kind of adorable when he looked annoyed at her. 

There was a lot of cheese going on Root and Reese’s table. Root got busy pulling the bread and butter out to get started making the grilled cheese sandwiches.  
Fusco leaned over to get Root’s attention. “How come Reese only has to dump some cheese on tortilla chips and I gotta make hard stuff?”

Root turned to look at Fusco with a serious stare. “Lionel, there is a tad more skill to queso. It’s Tex-Mex, there’s veggies and sometimes meat. Not everyone can make a good queso. Great queso is an art form.” 

Tinswell and Joan had reached Finch and Zoe’s cooking workstation now. The rest of team waited to hear what was in store for the culinary adventure.

“Mr. Bushtit, you’ll be making Zoe’s favorite dessert Gateau Saint Honore. A classic French torte named after St. Honore, the patron saint of pastry chefs,” Tinswell said while reading from her iPad. 

“Is that who we pray to for more donuts?” asked Fusco in a teasing tone. 

Shaw jabbed Fusco in the ribs with elbow. 

“I think an American invented the modern day donut Lionel, good question though,” Tinswell seemed pleased that everyone appeared to be paying attention. “Gateau Saint Honore doesn’t really have a cake foundation. The torte has a puff pastry base, topped with a caramel-filled cream and a rich chocolate center, surrounded by profiteroles dipped in caramelized sugar, with sweet tops resembling the halos of saint.” Tinswell looked to be very excited by this recipe. 

Finch stood very still and very confused. Shaw once again, couldn’t hold down a sly grin while watching her team leader figure out how he was going to make a difficult recipe without any electric help. Root looked extremely smug. Reese looked on with a sympathetic nod to Finch. 

Then Tinswell continued on, Finch wasn’t done hearing what he had to prepare for his fake wife Zoe yet. 

“You will also prepare her favorite main entrée, Sloppy Joes with chili cheese totpops.” 

Finch did not look happy. Then he asked more confused and slightly disgusted, “Sloppy Joes?”

“The loose meat sandwiches,” Tinswel offered up looking back down at her iPad. “They usually have the dripping sauce, making the hamburger bun soggy.” The therapist seemed less enthused about this recipe. 

“Wear a bib Bushtit,” Shaw looked on amused. Score another one for Root’s revenge hacking plan on Finch. “They get really messy.”

“What are totpops?” Finch asked, yet not really wanting to know the answer. 

“A cross between tater tots and jalapeño poppers,” Root jumped in and answered with an evil grin on her face. She then leaned over to whisper to Shaw. “Shaw you will love them. You’ll like a totpop.”

Shaw pointed a finger at Root. “Do not describe me as a puffy strong potato with a spicy center.”

Finch looked glumly over the counter at all the ingredients and let out a big sigh, a real depressed Charlie Brown sigh. 

“What a refined palette you have my darling,” Finch said dripping with sarcasm to Zoe, who in return just shrugged. 

“I can be high maintenance and low maintenance at the same time honey,” Zoe gave a sly grin to her fake husband. 

Tinswell then spoke up again, “Zoe, you’re be making Harold’s favorite meal…pre-packaged Chef Boyardee’s Beefaroni.” The therapist seemed confused by this food choice; coming from the man who kept wearing pressed shorts and crisp, super clean shirts. 

“Boyardee’s Beefaroni is a good choice,” Fusco said without any sarcasm and thumbs up to Finch. Nearly everyone looked at him with a scrunched up nose with disgust and disgusted eyes, even Reese. 

As the couples all got busy working on their meals, it was clear three of the women who didn’t have much to cook were having too much fun watching their partners struggle tremendously with complicated and intricate recipes. 

Root gave Shaw and Zoe each a half of Reese’s grilled cheese sandwich she made for him. Shaw didn’t share any of Fusco’s popcorn. Although, Fusco did eat most of Finch’s Beefaroni after Zoe heated it up in a pan on one of the kitchen stoves. 

As all the cooking progressed, Tinswell noticed that harmony wasn’t on the menu or one of the ingredients at all. There seemed to be a pinch of hostility instead of salt added to three couples recipes. While the therapist was paying attention to Betty and Fred she looked up to see Sammy smear yogurt all over her Lionel’s face. Then heard Sam complain how her queso wasn’t good to her partner Reese. She then dumped the whole bowl of queso over Harold’s head while he stood trying to roll his pastry dough. The cheese slid down his head, some cheese flowed onto his glasses and some underneath. 

Then before she knew it, Tinswell looked up to see Lionel grabbing a handful of the cold queso and throwing it in his wife’s hair. Then Sammy grabbed handfuls of queso and threw them at her husband. Lionel grabbed a chunk and smeared it all over Sammy’s face. It seemed no one left the kitchen without large amounts of cheese in their hair and smeared all over their clothes. 

There was a large amount of mediocre queso wasted during the cooking therapy session and Shaw wasn’t happy. Food is meant for eating not for throwing or wasting, especially cheese that was made into queso damn it. 

*****

Root and Shaw went to the bathroom to wash some of the food off their faces. As soon as they got inside the bathroom, Root pushed Shaw up against the wall and started licking some of the cheese off her neck. Root ran her tongue up and around, licking as much cheese as she could. Shaw let out a moan, she had no idea Root licking cheese off her face and neck could send such massive pleasurable waves through her whole body. 

Before Shaw thought about returning the gross favor, they both heard footsteps heading towards the bathroom door. 

“In here,” Root pulled Shaw into a bathroom stall. She then spun them around so she was standing in front of the toilet and Shaw looked up to confused, liquid cheese still running down her neck, smeared all over her face and dripping from her hair. 

The bathroom door opened and someone walked into the room. Running water was heard from the sink then napkins were heard being pulled from a dispenser.

Root reached behind her and got a seat cover from the dispensing on the back wall. She placed the seat cover over the toilet seat and sat down. She pulled on Shaw’s arms to get her to sit on her lap. Shaw rolled her eyes and shook her head. Root glared at her, pointed down at their feet, then Shaw’s bandaged leg and then to the door of the stall; indicting, the noise from the incoming person in the bathroom. Shaw very reluctantly lowered herself on to Root’s lap to straddle her; they were both mindful of her leg. 

Shaw brought her legs up to rest on the base of the toilet so her feet couldn’t be seen on the floor. She had her arms spread eagle, bracing one hand on each side of the stall. Root took this opportunity to wrap her arms into a hug around Shaw, she held tightly to her waist; under the guise of course of helping petite primary asset not fall off her lap. They both were completely still, listening to the person who entered the bathroom. Their eyes darted around, working hard to decipher if the person was just using the sink or something more. Root’s arms were wrapped around Shaw so snuggly; she never got to hug Shaw like this, if this was considering hugging of some sort. 

The stall’s door next to them opened and then slammed shut. Root and Shaw’s eyes went a little wide with the slam of the door since it shook their bathroom stall as well. There was a long sigh and rustle of clothes as the supposed woman next to them went about her business. Some tension drained from Root and Shaw when they heard the familiar sound of someone relieving oneself from a full bladder. They stared at each other as they listened to the woman next to them. Root then leaned her head down and very softly kissed Shaw’s chest where her shirt took a dip. Her arms still so tight around Shaw’s waist and back; they were pressed together so firmly, it was as if they were super glued together.

Shaw shook her head and rolled her eyes. 

Shaw couldn’t believe Root sometimes. She grabbed a handful of Root’s hair and tugged. She felt something sticky and thick on her hand and pulled it away. It was cheese. She realized there was even more cheese in Root’s hair than expected. She brought her hand, pushed her hand between her and Root’s chest so she could wipe her hand on the hacker’s shirt. 

Suddenly, there was the flush of the toilet and the stall’s door next to them slammed shut. They could hear the faucet running now again. 

Root took this chance of slight noise to place more kisses along Shaw’s chest and neck. Shaw held one hand firm on the bathroom stall wall and then other hand yanked again on Root’s hair to pull her lips away from her neck. Those damn distracting lips. 

Shaw knew she had her own sticky, liquid situation going on in her underwear because of straddling Root and having her lick cheese off her body. Damn it Root. Why does everything the woman does have to turn me on, Shaw wondered. Again, she was blaming the island. Shaw stared at Root’s lips; they were both distracted with each other to be listening to the bathroom occupant too closely. Root leaned back down and started kissing Shaw’s neck, slowly moving her upwards towards her lips. 

Then Destiny’s Child ‘Independent Woman, Pt. 1’ song filled the bathroom. Root tore her lips away from Shaw. Root and Shaw had perplexed looks on their faces. The song stopped after the, ‘All the honeys, who making money. Throw your hands up at me’ part. There was a brief silence before someone spoke. 

Joan’s voice filled the bathroom. 

Root and Shaw both looked to each other with serious faces. The two teammates turned their heads to hear anything that might be spoken. They listened very closely. 

“Hey, it’s me. Yeah, give me like forty-five minutes. Samaritan better behave this time,” Joan said quickly. 

The bathroom door slammed shut as Joan left.


	21. The Secret Life of Joan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, for the long absence. I wanted to finish the whole thing before posting the next chapter. And then I gave up, it’s getting close to being done. So if you have any thoughts or suggestions – let me know! Not sure this chapter is that great, I blame Joan. ;-)

“Her?” 

Both Root and Shaw said at the same time. Both sets of eyes went wide with surprise. They turned to each other with scrunched up faces then back in the direction of the door. 

Root quickly dug into her shorts pocket and pulled out her phone. She typed fast, her phone pairing with Joan’s phone before she got too far away. Shaw watched Root for a moment before realizing she was still sitting on her lap, she moved to disentangle herself from Root but the hacker’s one arm held on tighter to her waist. 

“Root…” Shaw said in a low growl, but she stopped trying to move away.

Root put the phone on top of the toilet paper dispenser and wrapped both her arms around Shaw again. Shaw kept her hands firmly planted on each side of the stall; she let Root have her cheesy hug. Queso from both of their shirts, arms and other body parts being smeared together and getting even stickier to the touch. 

Shaw rolled her eyes and slowly lifted her legs; she pulled Root’s arms from her waist and dismounted from Root’s lap. Root of course took this opportunity to run her hands along Shaw’s ass as she stood up. She immediately missed the heat and electricity of Shaw sitting on her lap and having easier access to her cheese flavored neck at the moment. 

They stood up and shared a look, still confused about what they’d heard.

“Joan?” asked Shaw with a scrunched up and completely baffled look on her face. The cheese all over her hair and face just added to her confused messy appearance. 

“Who is Joan that she can talk that way about Samaritan?” Root wondered out loud. She started scrolling through Joan’s phone. 

“Is she like Samaritan’s boss or something?” asked Shaw, shaking her head. “She can’t be over Greer?” 

“Her?” Both Root and Shaw asked in unison. 

“Well, she is annoying enough.” Root scrolled through Joan’s phone but let out a frustrated sigh. “The Machine can’t seem to access much of anything on Joan’s phone, but it does have the GPS locator turned on so we’ll know where she’s headed.” 

“We need to follow her right now. If she’s meeting someone from Samaritan in forty-five minutes, we need to be there,” Shaw pushed open the bathroom stall door and went to the sink to wash cheese off her hands. 

“True, except I’m not going with queso in my hair,” Root followed Shaw out and tried to wash some queso off her hands and face. “Let’s go shower.” 

“Separately,” Shaw shot back to Root. 

Root ran her eyes up and down Shaw’s body, and then bit her lower lip. 

“Root,” Shaw said in a serious tone, even as her body betrayed her, “No. We gotta hurry.” She felt flushed and wondered if some of the queso had slipped down into her underwear. Then shook her head knowing it was just her lower region reaction from straddling Root’s hips. 

Root pressed up against the back of Shaw’s body, Shaw then turned around to face Root and her lips were captured in a heated kiss. Shaw reciprocated immediately. After letting herself indulge in a minute, Shaw pulled away biting Root’s lower lip in the process. 

“Okay, fine. No hands below the waist,” Shaw pointed a finger at Root, who in return smirked back. 

Root opened her mouth to object. 

“No, hands below the waist until we find out what’s going on with Joan and how she’s working with Samaritan. And how many times I can shoot her,” Shaw had a super serious look on her face as she crossed her arms against her chest and put some physical distance between her and Root. “No, other appendages either. No legs, no mouths.”

Shaw knew it would be best to shower separately, yet she also just wanted to see Root naked again. 

“What about…” Root smiled at Shaw and moved closer. 

“No,” Shaw stayed firm although all she wanted was a long, hot, naked shower with Root. Sure for the sex, but also to get all the queso washed off her body. The cheese was hardening and giving kind of a crusty outer shell to their clothes and hair. “On second thought, solo showers.” 

“You can zip ties my hands together,” Root teased as Shaw didn’t move away and let Root push her up against near the door. 

“That means I have to shampoo your hair, no way.”

Root gave a little pout face to Shaw, who in return just shook her head. 

Shaw headed for the door to exit the bathroom, then quickly turned around to Root. “Joan is meeting with someone from Samaritan and I’m not missing my chance to take that troll down.” 

Their shower was surprisingly quick and Root managed to keep her hands to herself. It was actually Shaw that broke their no hands below the waist rule. Shaw’s hands wandered south of the waistline under the guise of washing queso off of Root. Root was pretty sure she hadn’t gotten queso down there, but she appreciated the effort Shaw took to clean that sensitive area. She didn’t just use her hands; she used her mouth, too.

Root had a smug grin the whole time getting dressed so they could follow Joan. Her whole body vibrated from the shower and her intense cleaning by Shaw. She could still feel Shaw’s hands and mouth all over her body. The hacker was pleasantly happy that Shaw had broken her own rule so she could make sure she was ‘clean’ of queso. Although, when Root slipped her thigh in between Shaw’s legs, the Machine alerted her of new information. She pulled away from Shaw which got a huffy retort from her petite primary asset until Root told her what the Machine had just relied to her. 

They had a new number and it appeared Joan was heading to the same place.

Root and Shaw called the guys and told them. They all decided the best course of action right now was for Root and Shaw to follow Joan, and then call for back up immediately if the situation looked bigger then they could handle. The guys along with Zoe were going to search Joan’s room and quiz Tinswell on how well she knew her scheming, annoying assistant. 

The Machine alerted them that Joan had gotten into a taxi and was heading into the city. Root and Shaw hurried and commandeered a resort vehicle to pursue Joan. 

“I’m so ready to finally shoot Joan,” Shaw said as she drove, getting directions via the Machine from Root. She sped through the streets trying to catch up to Joan’s taxi. 

“How’s your leg?” asked Root concerned.

“It would have been better without queso. It’s fine,” said a very stoic Shaw. 

Shaw was a little mad at herself for losing control in the shower. Abstaining from sex with Root wasn’t helping her distance herself, though, so she decided that she should just have a lot of sex with Root and make herself sick of it. She had a nice buildup going herself before the Machine interrupted them once again. She hoped this whole Joan business could be wrapped up quickly. Shoot Joan in the kneecap with a silencer then dump her off at the police station. Done. Back to plan Naked Root Sex Overload. Or she thought, it's a mission now, a top secret mission. 

Root and Shaw followed the directions to Joan, which lead them to a local bar. They sat in the car before heading in. 

“Shaw, you stay out here and check the perimeter. We don’t want to get ambushed,” Root said while scanning the parking lot area for anything suspicious. “I’ll go inside and see if I can have eyes on Joan.”

Shaw didn’t like this plan, yet she did know they needed to split up to fully gauge the situation. They had no idea how many Samaritan operatives Joan might be meeting or if the bar was a front for some kind of Samaritan facility. She watched Root enter the bar and positioned her earwig, connecting to Root immediately.

“Root, I’m stationed outside in the car. What now?” Shaw asked over the comm links. 

“The Machine doesn’t know exactly what we’re looking for so you’ll have to tell us both exactly what you see,” Root said discreetly as she walked into the local bar and a found a booth in the back to observe the whole scene. 

“I spy, surf boards. So probably a lot of surfers here,” Shaw said in almost bored tone. “Wait, there are some guys breaking into some nicer cars in the lot.”

Shaw quietly got of the car and moved closer to where the car thieves were trying to break into a fancy Range Rover. She swiftly and quickly took the three guys out despite her leg wound. She zip tied all of them to a bicycle rack up near the front. 

“Next time you’re all seeing other half wants me to break up a car theft gang of guys, a little heads up would be great,” Shaw said in a sarcastic tone. She walked back to the borrowed resort car to wait. 

“She knows you can handle yourself,” Root said with a smile in her voice.

Just then, Root caught sight of Joan sitting at the bar. Joan was looking into her phone and talking. Root realized she was Skyping with someone. Root discreetly used a menu to mask her face to watch the assistant more closely. 

“I’ve got eyes on Joan now. The syncing isn’t working for some reason,” Root said annoyed. “I’m going to move closer so I can hear at least one side of the conversation. Joan is Skyping with someone.” 

Root very gracefully, like a ballerina floating across a stage, moved closer to Joan without the assistant paying any attention. Then again, Joan was completely focused on her phone; she was hunched over the device and holding it close to her face. 

“Don’t get to close,” Shaw said quickly, she gripped the steeling wheel tightly, scanning the parking lot once again. 

Root slowly walked over to the other side of the bar to approach from an angle that wouldn’t be seen directly by Joan. She got close enough to hear a little of the conversation.

“You’ve been doing this game for years, no one is better than you. Right? Isn’t that right? You…only you…you,” Joan talked into her phone camera. “Only you can take down…”

Root had trouble hearing the last word. “She might have said take down security? Or Samaritan? Or sassafras?” The hacker pursed her lips, deep in thought as she tried to decode Joan’s conversation.

“Let me just shoot her now,” Shaw said over the comm links, she was getting pretty antsy in the car. 

“We still don’t know if she’s the perpetrator or who the victim is yet,” Root said teasing her favorite primary asset. “Or if they’re connected at all?”

“You’re joking. It’s Joan. She almost tried to kiss you Root. And me. Should I continue? She’s super annoying. She’s the perp,” Shaw sighed heavily and loudly. 

Root loved hearing Shaw in her ear. She smiled as she said, “We all make mistakes.”

Shaw pinched her nose bridge in between her eyes in frustration. 

“Like when she interrupted your thank you massage?” Shaw shot back to Root, hoping to get a raise. 

“I’m going to move closer to hear better since the phone syncing is cutting out for some reason,” Root said as she inched even closer to Joan. 

“Okay, so just to confirm, you’re saying I can’t shoot Joan yet?” Shaw wanted to double check. 

“Stay the course Sameen,” Root’s smile was evident in her voice.

“Fine. Just remember I told you so when this all goes pear shaped,” Shaw replied back in her most sardonic tone. 

Joan was so engrossed in her Skype call that she was completely oblivious that Root was only one bar stool over from her. 

“She appears to also be reading a magazine while Skyping…” Root trailed over, looking over her shoulder discreetly at Joan. “No, it’s a Sudoku puzzle book,” she replied back very quietly. 

“Wow, that’s worse.” Shaw snorted. “Isn’t this place kind of a singles bar?”

“The Machine did say there are a lot of hook ups here,” Root continued to watch Joan Skype and work on her Sudoku puzzle book while sipping a glass of white wine. 

After, a few silent minutes of nothing happening, Shaw’s voice came back and tickled Root’s ear. 

“Root, order me a hamburger to go,” Shaw said in a rather bored tone. 

“You just ate,” Root said with a smirk in her voice. 

“You’re not protein. You’re like a pixy stick.”

“So you’re saying I’m the sweetest thing you’ve ever tasted?” Root blushed deeply with a huge wattage smile on her face; Shaw admitting to sexy times over the comm links had been one of her fantasies for a while. 

“Yeah, sure Root.” Shaw shook her head. Now she wanted a pixy stick and a burger. If she had too many Root pixy sticks she wondered if it would rot out her vagina. 

Shaw wondered how long this Skype call with Samaritan would last, what could that ninny Joan be talking about for so long over the phone. She looked up to the front to see the gang of car thieves getting antsy and trying to break free of their zip ties. 

“Root, why can’t the Machine access Joan’s phone?” Shaw asked annoyed. 

“Okay, looks like it’s finally gained access. She’s patching us through so we can hear now,” Root said while noticing that Joan had her phone nearly pressed up against her face and making kissing faces towards the camera. Root watched with a bewildered look on her face. Bewildered mixed in with disgust. 

Joan’s voice finally was heard over both Root and Shaw’s comm links. “I don’t know yet. I’m still watching them. They’re both the hottest women I’ve ever seen but there is something off about them. Sammy was so heroic when she saved me,” Joan said with a dreamy look on her face. 

Shaw’s eyes widened; she couldn’t believe Joan was talking about her, specifically to Samaritan? 

The syncing went out again and back to static, they couldn’t hear the Skype call again. 

Root was alarmed, too. She was done watching and waiting. She was going to see whom Joan was talking to and, if it was Greer, she was going to flip him off. She walked up to Joan and leaned over her shoulder to look at her phone.

“Are you talking to Samaritan right now?” Root accused Joan, catching the woman completely off guard she almost fell off her bar stool. 

“Subtle,” Shaw said very sarcastically into Root’s ear. 

“Sam! Why are you here?” Joan asked, confused, looking Root up and down. “Did you want to see say Hi? He loves people.” 

“So you are with Samaritan?” Root asked, she thought maybe Joan would be dumb enough just to spill it right now. 

“What? I just wanted to talk, get a drink and see him. I miss him so much,” Joan said in a whiny voice. 

Root squinted her eyes, her face full of abhorrence. 

“Are you talking about Greer?” Root thought she might start gagging if Joan was having some kind of clandestine affair with the shriveled old man commandeering Samaritan. Or perhaps Greer was Samaritan’s whipping boy, either way if the revelation headed in that direction Root thought she might hurl in this singles bar. 

“Who? I’m talking about my baby Sam,” Joan’s face changed and a genuine smile spread across her dour features. 

“Baby? Sam?” Root was so confused.

“Look at him,” Joan gushed while she showed Root her phone. “He’s all ready for bed. I miss him so much.” 

Root saw a big, fluffy dog in flannel pajamas on Joan’s Skype session. She smiled despite herself, it was a damn cute dog. 

“How do you know about Samaritan?” Asked Joan to Root very confused. 

Root’s eyes widened. She realized they had been wrong and froze. She tried to come up with something fast. “Doesn’t he have his own Instagram?” 

“He does!” Joan exclaimed quite excitedly. “As you know from his Insta bio, I named him Samaritan because he’s such a good boy. He saved save some kittens when he just a puppy.”

Root turned her head and whispered to Shaw. “Stand down. Stand down, false alarm.”

“What do you mean false alarm? She was talking to Samaritan,” Shaw said in a super serious tone. 

“Yes, Samaritan…her dog. I’m sending a pic,” Root whispered while Joan continuing talking to her canine love, the hacker took a photo of Joan’s screen to send to Shaw. 

“Why in the hell is the dog in pajamas?” Asked an angry Shaw. 

“That’s your first question?” Root whispered back as to not be heard by Joan, yet highly amused at Shaw’s angry tone. She made a mental note to dress Bear up some time in the future. 

“I think she’s still working with Samaritan if she’s forcing her dog to wear human clothes,” Shaw grumbled. “I’m going to shoot her.” 

“Sameen, hold on. We still don’t know why there’s a number here. And I’m guessing now it’s just a happy coincidence that Joan is at this same location,” Root said quietly, Joan was still very occupied cooing over her dog Samaritan. “That’s why the Machine didn’t invade her privacy and alert us sooner of the other Samaritan…the helpful dog.” 

“It’s only happy if Joan gets shot,” Shaw growled back. “I’m not in the mood for Ms. Joan Lonely-heart,” Shaw wanted to get Root back to the hatch or the resort room, hopefully the rest of the team was occupied with more research or something so they could have a few hours. She wouldn’t mind some repeats from last night or this morning or in the shower. She wanted to see just how flexible the hacker truly was. 

Root turned her head away from Joan and said in a low voice, “Shaw, just give me a few minutes.” She wanted nothing more to get Shaw alone and naked, yet she kind of felt a pang of sadness watching Joan sitting alone at the bar. She knew what loneliness looked like versus just enjoying time alone. She asked the Machine to help her. 

Root sat down firmly on the bar stool next to Joan. The assistant had ended her Skype session with her dog and now looked even more sad while sipping her drink and tapping a pencil against her Sudoku puzzle book. 

“So Joan, you came here to drink, play Sudoku and visit with your dog via Skype?” Root put on her best people friendly face. 

“Ugh, it sounds so pathetic doesn’t. I just get so jealous of all the happy couples. And even the unhappy ones like you and John.” Joan cast her eyes down at the bar. 

“Why do you think John and I are unhappy?” Root was surprised; she thought she was a better actor. She blamed her fake hubby for lack of chemistry and performance issues.

“I don’t feel like I connect with anyone, like ever. I just want someone to do stupid exercises with…someone to curl up with on the couch and binge…someone to cook breakfast for...someone who looks at me like Sammy looks at you…someone to smother with kisses and hugs…” Joan kept word vomiting all her wishful requests and desires for a future partner. 

“Wait…what?” Root was totally shocked that Shaw might look at her differently than Bear or a sandwich. 

“What did that toad say?” Shaw snapped to Root. 

Joan looked up into Root’s eyes and said in the most sincere voice Root had heard the assistant use. 

“I’ve gotten really bitter. I’m sorry I’ve been an asshole. I just can’t ever seem to meet anyone. I try and be interesting…I snapchatter with filters…I tweet with shows…I lead a young adult book club….joined a softball team…” Joan paused on the verge of tears. “I’m like really woke too, I went on the Women’s March.”

“Root!” Shaw whispered shouted. “What is going on? Is she having a breakdown?”

Before Root could lean away to answer Shaw a man approached them at the bar. Root handed Joan a bar napkin to blow her nose and pat her tear soaked eyes. Root looked over at the man who just walked up to them very suspiciously. 

“Can I buy you ladies a drink?” said the man with a plastic smile plastered across his face. His teeth were blinding white, too much unsavory cologne wafted in the air as he got closer and he was wearing Ed Hardy jeans. 

Root turned to look at Joan to see if she could get some kind of signal whether the assistant would like this guy or not. Slowly, Joan nodded her head and blew her nose on the napkin again.

“Sure, why not,” Root said, trying to sound casual instead of snarky.

“Well, don’t get too excited there lady. I was just being nice,” the man said defensively, picking up on the chilly tone in Root’s voice.

This guy set Root off; he sounded condescending and, even worse, he looked and acted entitled. Also, the jeans were obnoxious.

“Actually, I don’t think you were being nice,” Root replied and gave the man one of her most deadly glares. “You have ulterior motives so you weren’t just being _nice_.” The hacker said in a tone so cold it was dripping with icicles, while accentuating the word nice to hammer her point across to the jerk. Then Root did her best Miranda Priestly, “That’s all.” 

The man turned around and left them alone with his tail between his legs. 

Shaw snorted. “If looks could kill, you definitely shot his ass a few times with two guns blazing.” This was high praise from the petite primary asset. 

Shaw admitted she really did love seeing Root handle two guns at one time. And taking down asshat guys was also fun. 

Root smiled, she knew Shaw had to be inside the bar somewhere now watching them. Obviously, either bored out of her mind or hungry. 

“Little help here please?” Root asked into her phone camera discreetly out of sight of Joan. 

“Root, what are you doing?” Shaw asked, watching Root talk to the Machine while Joan sipped her wine. 

“Asking if the Machine can check Tinder to see if there is a match in here for Joan,” Root said in a low voice over the comm links to Shaw. 

“Yeah, that seems like a good use of the Machine’s time - matchmaking for an annoying lovelorn single,” Shaw let out a heavy frustrated sigh. 

“I think the Machine is a pretty good matchmaker,” Root said as she did her non-wink to the camera. 

Another guy approached Root and Joan. The Machine had alerted Root this man was not a match for Joan and apparently he was an all around asshole. The three exchanged a few words then things escalated very quickly and right before the guy was actually going to try and punch Root, he fell forward suddenly unconscious and slammed his face into the bar. When he slid down to the ground, Shaw was behind him grinning. 

“Sammy! What are you doing here?” asked Joan, very surprised. “You saved me once again!” Joan’s face beamed as she looked at Shaw. 

“I texted her, it’s girls night out right?” Root smiled warmly to Joan. And then she smiled even more warmly at Shaw. 

“What fun!” Joan turned to face Shaw. “Thanks for knocking that guy out, he was such a douche.” Joan then hugged Shaw, who did not return the affection. 

“I need a burger and scotch,” deadpanned Shaw as she walked up to the bar and stood on the other side of Root, she pulled out the menu and looked it over. 

Joan watched as Root’s eyes were glued to Shaw, the assistant just smirked. 

One of the bartenders, a tan, muscular, modelesque, local with gorgeous, dark hair with beautiful tattoos on her shoulders and forearms waltzed up with a grin on her face and stared at Root, Shaw and Joan. 

“What I can I do for you ladies?” The stunning, statuesque bartender asked while smiling at all three women. 

All three women were a little awe struck by the beauty, posture and the smooth timber of the bartender’s voice; she looked like she just walked out of the Themyscira neighborhood of Hawaii. All three women were momentarily frozen. 

Shaw shook her head then blurted out. “Can I get a burger and scotch, please,” She didn’t want to lose her chance to order something before Root came up with some possibly silly ass plan involving the bartender. She could see the brain wheels working in the hacker’s head or more accurately Root’s CPU and RAM portion lighting up. 

The bartender moved over to the bar computer and typed in Shaw’s order into the system while she kept on eye on the three women, specifically the one with puffy eyes nursing a white wine. She noticed the other two women were obviously a couple, as she had watched the shorter one watch the taller one from the moment she entered the bar. Those two only had intense (somewhat scary) eyes for each other the bartender thought. She walked back over to the three women to deliver Shaw's scotch.

“Hi, I’m Sam. This Sammy,” Root put her hand on Shaw’s forearm and left it there, in a very proprietary way. “And this is _Joan_.” Root really emphasized and enunciated Joan’s name, if the bartender didn’t pick up the cue then it was a hard pass. 

“Hi, I’m Keahi,” the bartender reached out her smooth, muscled arm to shake Root’s hand, then Shaw and then Joan; she let her hand linger on the assistant’s hand. 

“That’s a beautiful name. What does it mean?” Root asked smiling at the gorgeous bartender. It was a regular smile though, not a Shaw smile. She left her hand on Shaw’s arm; she started rubbing slow circles and was shocked the petite primary asset hadn’t pushed her away yet. Root thought she would like to see Keahi and Joan together, but more specifically she hoped to be leaving soon so she could give Shaw a thorough cleaning like she got in the shower before coming to the bar. 

“Root…” Shaw growled to the hacker, “…don’t over do it. You’re the wingman not the pick-upper.” Shaw dropped her hand, slid it over to Root’s warm, tanned thigh and pinched her hard. Since they were both wearing their island attire of shorts and mix match of t-shirts with tank tops, she was willing to bet the pinch hurt a lot more on bare skin. 

Root couldn’t help a huge wattage smile spread across her face. Shaw sounded jealous or angry. Or both. Probably just angry since she was pretty sure Shaw didn’t do jealousy. The pinch was hard and good, a great motivator for hurrying up this meet and greet. 

“It means flame,” Keahi said with an engaging smile and even though Root asked the question, the bartender was only staring at Joan. 

Joan was speechless; she just sat there gawking at Keahi. Root and Shaw slowly inched further down the bar away from the two women. 

“She kind of looks like Moana’s hot super buff older sister,” Shaw said to Root watching the bartender and Joan slowly start to interact with each other. 

Shaw nudged Root to a booth in the back of the bar so she could eat her recently delivered burger and scotch in peace away from Joan and her new potential ‘too smoking hot for Joan’ date. Root smiled and followed to the booth. They sat with an appropriate amount of distance between them, the appropriate amount of distance for two straight, married women. There was a comfortable silence while Shaw ate. Root continued to watch everyone coming and going around in the bar, still very unclear on what kind of irrelevant thing might be going on in the bar tonight. After, Shaw was done eating she joined Root in scanning the room. 

Looking around the room, Root’s eyes landed on Shaw again, who had one hand resting on her uninjured leg under the table and the other hand wrapped around the glass of scotch. Root reached out and slowly ran her hand down Shaw’s forearm then very gradually interlaced their fingers together on top of Shaw’s leg. Shaw accepted Root’s hand and sat there staring down at their intertwined hands. The long, delicate fingers in her more calloused, rough hands; Shaw thought to herself that keyboards are definitely kinder to hands in some ways more than fighting. 

Shaw didn’t know how Root could make hand holding hardcore foreplay, yet she did. The petite primary asset felt a huge wave of desire shoot through her body. Her stomach felt all warm and she felt sweaty all of sudden. She didn’t really think that burger was all that so it had to be Root related instead. She had heard the expression before ‘weak in the knees’ and thought it sounded ridiculous, yet here she was glad she was sitting down. If you would have told her a year ago a tall, lanky, completely nerdy computer hacker would have her so flustered sexually in a public place with just silly ass hand holding, she would have definitely shot that person or threw them through a glass window. 

Root didn’t know how to describe just touching Shaw’s hand. Even the slightest touches seemed to light up all her senses like blinds being opened in a darkened room. Shaw’s skin was so warm and despite some rough areas, was so very soft. The feeling came over her like walking into a hot shower on a cold morning, the feeling of never wanting to leave that warm, wet, blissful place. 

Then Root started rubbing her thumb back and forth over Shaw’s hand. Shaw lifted her eyes up to stare into Root’s eyes. Her eyes then went lower to focus on Root’s lips and the hacker’s eyes followed suit. They stared longingly at each other’s lips, momentarily forgetting they were in a public setting undercover. Root sucked in her lower lip into her mouth and ran her tongue across the length, Shaw watched this action laser focused; she inhaled a deep breath. 

Joan and Keahi were happily talking at the bar when Root and Shaw caught their attention. They both watched the intense women for a minute. The two women at the booth thought they were being discreet yet it was obvious they were holding hands underneath the table and about to lunge for each other’s lips. 

Joan whispered to Keahi, “If they don’t kiss soon, I think I’ll spontaneously combust.” 

Suddenly, the front doors to the bar swung open violently and four men barged in, one guy with long, wind blow hair walked out in the front; clearly the leader of the gang. They headed straight to the pool tables were a group of big, muscular guys wearing long board shorts and tank tops were playing. 

“Hey! We told you this wasn’t over!” The long blonde haired leader guy yelled to the group of pool players. “This is our turf, you can’t surf here.”

The angriest looking guy from the pool players group shouted back, “We can surf anywhere we want.” He puffed out his chest and stared back then intruding group of guys. Then the other pool player guys moved to stand next to their leader. The other group of guys moved closer, two lines of guys faced off against each other. It looked like the set up for a deadly game of Red Rover. 

Before anyone knew what happened a full on surf turf bar brawl erupted and everything from chairs, tables and fists were flying. 

Root and Shaw jump out of the booth and sprung into action, Shaw a little slower than usual due to her leg injury. They both cross the room knocking out troublemakers in different ways. Keahi jumped in too, she grabbed a pool stick and started whacking guys left and right. Shaw flipped one guy over and then grabbed a chair and smashed it across another guy’s face. Root moved quickly and smoothly through the bar tasing a few guys, watching them fall down on the ground convulsing with a slight grin. Most of the guys got knocked out fast before any of the bystanders got hurt; the three women working together cleared the floor very efficiently and quickly. Root and Shaw went to work on zip tying all of gang members to the pool tables. Keahi walked back over to the bar and checked on an older man hunched down on the floor. Joan stood up slowly from her hiding place behind a few bar stools. 

Before anyone could fully catch their breath from the big brawl fight, the front door swung open again and yet another guy busted in. This guy was different though; he had a gun. None of the other guys had guns; this guy was a bigger threat and more clearly either the number or was here to kill the number. The gunman scanned the bar, pointing the gun at everyone until he landed on his target, Keahi. He stood still for a moment staring at Keahi as she helped the older bar patron to his feet. 

“Keahi! I warned you!” The gunman yelled as he aimed solely at Keahi, about to open fire on her. 

Joan, standing at the further end of the bar, saw his line of target and screamed. She launched into action and ran towards Keahi. Joan shielded Keahi just as the bullet targeted for the bartender hit her leg. The assistant collapsed onto the floor in an overly dramatic fashion, screeching in such high tones it was ear piercing. 

Shaw catapulted over to the gunman, grabbed the gun and then shot the guy in the leg. He shouted out in pain and whined very loudly several variations of ‘Dude, dude, dude, dude’ in a surfer drawl while curled up in a fetal position. 

“Karma dude,” Shaw said deadpan to the whiny bad gunman on the floor. 

“So...the number situation solved,” Root smiled unabashedly and adoringly at Shaw. 

*****

The police and the paramedics came and took care of everything. Thankfully, the bullet grazed Joan’s leg and didn’t cause any lasting damage. Joan and Shaw were twinsies now with leg injuries the assistant pointed out to the grumpy petite primary asset. 

Keahi noticed Shaw’s leg injury and offered some assistance since the petite primary asset declined a check up by the paramedics. Shaw did let the bartender take a look; it might have had something to do with Keahi looking like she was a muscular Amazon doctor. 

As Keahi bandaged up Shaw, she locked eyes with her. “The Hawaiian word for health is ‘ola’ and it also means ‘life’. Hawaiians believe you can’t have health without life, so you can’t have life without health.” Keahi gave Shaw a warm smile as she finished bandaging up her leg. “This Hawaiian poultice will help the wound heal faster.”

Shaw looked down at her leg; she was impressed with Keahi’s work. “Do you a Hawaiian poultice for libidos? Like stopping one or destroying it?” Shaw asked as she glanced over to Root talking with Joan who was propped up in a booth with her leg cushioned in a chair. 

“Stopping one of the most wondrous feelings of syncing your primal sexual desires? Feeling all your senses on fire because a certain someone is near you.” Keahi gave Shaw a hard stare with a cocky smirk. “Now that’s a first, most people want to jump start their libido, not stop them.”

“I think the humidity here has amped up my libido.” Root smiled over her shoulder to her and Shaw’s stomach felt warm, like she’d gulped a glass of top-shelf scotch. “And not in general, just for certain annoying people.” 

Keahi smiled at Shaw, patted her shoulder in a comforting acknowledgement and then walked over to where Root and Joan were sitting. Root stood up and Keahi took her seat next to Joan. The bartender smiled very warmly at the slightly injured assistant who in return beamed high voltage heart eyes. Root waltzed over to Shaw smirking the whole time as she sat down next to her petite primary asset. Root looked over the new leg dressing on Shaw’s leg. 

“So I guess Keahi was the number. The irrelevant numbers here are…” Shaw searched for a word as she looked around the bar. Sure it had been a messy scene but at least the whole thing was done pretty quickly unlike some of their long, drawn-out, confusing cases in New York. 

"A breath of fresh air?” Root threw out an option. 

“Easy.”

“You know what else is easy?” Root asked while biting her lower lip and running her eyes all over Shaw’s body. The petite primary asset had pulled her hair out of her ponytail and was running her fingers through it, which was undoing Root faster by the minute. 

“Yeah…that’s why I kept trying to push you through the door,” Shaw stared blank faced at Root, then a small smug grin pulled at the corners of her lips. “These two will be fine, let’s go.” She nodded in the direction of Joan and Keahi. 

“They do seem to be hitting it off,” Root looked over them quite proud of her matchmaking. 

“Are you two leaving?” Keah called over to them. “I can give everyone a ride back to the resort.” 

“Yes, we need to get back…to our husbands,” Root had a really hard time saying the word husbands. She scrunched up her nose at the word too. 

Shaw gritted her teeth. “Yes, I’m sure John and Lionel are wondering where we are.” She couldn’t have said this in a more dead monotone voice. This mission seemed to be going on for a year or more. Not that she actually minded except for the silly ass therapy sessions and pretending to be married to Fusco parts. 

“I’m sure Dr. Tinswell is wondering where I am. We had another session scheduled tonight,” Joan said while slowly trying to stand up with the help of Keahi. 

“What the hell, how many more asinine sessions are left?” Shaw blurted out before stopping herself as she stormed out of the bar followed by Root. 

“Those two are married to dudes?” With a shocked expression on her face, Keahi asked to Joan. The assistant just nodded to the bartender and rolled her eyes. 

*****

“Lydia! Lydia!” Joan shouted as soon as Keahi carried her into the resort lobby and she spotted her boss.

The painkillers the paramedics had given Joan for the graze on her leg had taken full effect on the car ride back to the hotel. She wasn’t as fun as Shaw was blitzed out on painkillers and much to everyone’s annoyance; she was twice as loud. 

Tinswell looked up from talking to Fred and Betty to watch her assistant being carried into the room by a tall, gorgeous, muscular woman with such ease and grace. 

“Joan, what happened? Where have you been?” Tinswell looked at Joan’s bandaged look. “Are you injured?”

“I am!” Joan said excitedly. “I got shot! This has been the best night of my life!” Joan stared at Keahi with a warm, dopey smile and ran her hands through the bartender’s dark, silk hair.

Shaw sighed, she leaned into Root, “It was just a graze.” Shaw was disappointed and irritated at the assistant for describing her injury inaccurately. 

“Let her have it,” Root squeezed Shaw’s arm and stared at the petite primary asset’s profile, then nodded to Keahi. 

Root and Shaw walked into the lobby resort behind them and then watched as Tinswell, Joan and Keahi walked further into the resort. 

Reese and Fusco walked up to Root and Shaw, they stood side by side their fake wives. The two women looked like they had been in a bar fight. 

“So I take it, that Joan wasn’t with Samaritan?” asked Reese in a deadpan tone. 

“Well, she was…except it turned out that her Samaritan was a Goldendoodle,” Root said with a shrug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to throw in a nod to Arrested Development, “Her?” Such a funny running joke on the show. There was some other stuff in this chapter (that I was bummed to lose) but I had to cut it, I blame Joan. Damnit Joan. And for some reason now I only see Joan as Briga Heelan from Great News.


	22. IKEA Therapy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, for the long absence! 2017 pretty much kicked my ass. This story and all the totally awesome, wonderful people who took time to leave comments were such a bright spot - thank you from the pit of my cold, dark heart :-) Not sure these last chapters are going to be good - I've gotten some great ideas - thanks Rsfchicken! And a HUGE THANK YOU to SloanGreyMercyDeath for all their editing (truly a laborious job) and inspiration and encouragement! Thanks so much for reading!

“A+ detective work there, finding out the perp was a dog,” Fusco joked to Root and Shaw as they walked down the hallways of the resort back to Reese and Root’s room.

Shaw glared at her fake hubby while Root tilted her head in a condescending way. 

“Lionel, the perp was a dangerous thug. The Goldendoodle is actually a good Samaritan, although just saying that word now sounds evil.” Root stared off for a moment thinking, “He saved a litter of kittens. Dog Samaritan. Not the other one.” 

“Thank you, Miss Groves, for that distinction,” Finch said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, impatient as he always was to get on with the team meetings and stop with banal chatter. 

“I want to free that dog from Joan,” Shaw grumbled just thinking of dogs in people’s clothes as the team continued to walk through the winding hallways of the resort. 

“Good idea, Sameen, she could make a great date for Bear.” Root sidled up quickly next to Shaw and smiled at her. 

Shaw shook her head. Leave it to Root to imply some silly ass imagery romantic connections between two dogs. 

The team assembled in Root and Reese’s room, or what could be called Root, Reese’s and Shaw’s room; although, Shaw would probably balk at the mention, even though she had yet to spend one night in her assigned room. She’d only spent one night away from Root, which was for mandatory work. 

Bear trotted around the room; he was happy everyone was in one big group. The canine member of the team looked like he had been frolicking in the ocean again. Shaw smiled seeing Bear all happy and dirty; she smiled even bigger when she saw how upset Finch was seeing their canine teammate so filthy. She walked over and ran her hands all over the canine’s sandy fur; Bear flopped down on the ground and rolled over on his belly. Okay, Shaw thought, Bear was clearly really enjoying his vacation. She sat down on the floor with him to give him proper belly scratching. 

A few minutes later, Finch huddled over his laptop on the dining room table while Fusco, Zoe and Reese sat in chairs as Root and Shaw paced around and recounted the bar brawl and irrelevant number situation to the rest of the team. Then, Finch debriefed everyone on what they had discovered in Joan’s room -- nothing; especially now that they knew her Samaritan was a dog. The team still had very little to go on for finding out who might have been underwater trying to destroy important undersea Internet cables and cripple the worlds communication. They all agreed they didn’t want to leave with the perpetrators still possibly here in Hawaii. Yet, they all needed to get back to New York. Finch had been monitoring the Machine’s daily reports and they were really backed up on numbers in their hometown. 

After the debriefing, everyone stood around the large table close to the kitchen, except for Shaw who had wandered over to the refrigerator to search for food. 

“Well, the good news is that tomorrow is the last day for the couple’s retreat,” Finch said while closing his laptop on the table. 

“Aw, big lug, we’ll be divorced soon.” Root cooed to Reese. She walked over and looped her arm through the tall male primary asset’s arm. 

Zoe standing on the other side of Reese just smirked as she watched her somewhat boyfriend/booty call look extremely uncomfortable with Root’s attention. 

“We will all need to pay attention tomorrow during the final session, the renewing vows.” Finch said the last part quickly. He wasn’t sure if everyone knew what the last session of retreat entailed. 

Shaw lifted her head out from the refrigerator. “Finch! You don’t seriously think I’m actually going to marry Fusco do you?” Shaw shouted at the startled Finch, “and I forbid Root to marry Reese.”

“You forbid it?” Root’s face broke into a high wattage smile filled with glee. She removed her arm from Reese’s arm and moved closer to the kitchen, closer to Shaw. 

“For Reese’s sake,” Shaw shot back to everyone, especially Root. 

Shaw caught Root’s eyes, then ducked her head back in the refrigerator. She didn’t really mean for that to come out like she wanted to save Root for marriage or anything closely related marriage with the two of them. No, she was being more of a protective team member or something. Shaw felt a little sweaty as she could feel Root get closer to her and stand behind her; once again, she blamed the damn humidity of the island. 

Root didn’t know what to make of Shaw’s statement about forbidding her to actually marry Reese. The words did make her feel all lit up inside and she wanted to just drag Shaw away and smother her in thousands of kisses everywhere. 

“The Machine has replaced the minister with an actor. None of the ceremonies will be legal or binding,” Finch reassured his teammates. 

“That is one crazy charade.” Fusco smirked as he made his way to the kitchen. “Marrying Shaw? That’s too deep undercover for me.”

Root walked back over to the table when it was clear Shaw only had a one-track mind at the moment - food. She suddenly felt exhausted, the day and the heat finally setting in.

“Well, kids, I’m hitting the hay. It’s been a long day and it looks like I’m getting married tomorrow.” Root winked, both eyes closing at different times to Reese. 

Reese glanced over to Zoe who looked highly amused. 

Shaw had walked back over to the table and stood next to Root. She didn’t know where the hacker was going, but she wanted to be close by in case another number popped up. Or if Root needed help taking her clothes off. If this was their last night on the island, she wanted to make sure to get a few more rounds with Root. Her body was humming and vibrating just thinking of getting her hands all over and inside Root again. 

Root leaned in and whispered so only Shaw could hear, “Wanna be my bachelorette party?”

Shaw hoped her eyes didn't give her away or the fact she had to swallow hard just thinking of being Root's main entertainment for the night. 

Finch gathered up his briefcase and laptop to leave, he said this last part quietly in hopes of not getting something thrown at him from Shaw and possibly Reese. “Just two more sessions.”

“TWO?” Shaw’s voice dripped with anger and annoyance towards Finch. 

“Tomorrow. Plus, the one tonight,” Finch said softly with a slightly apologetic face to his teammates, who stood with their arms across their chests and glared at him. 

Shaw knew once they were back in New York, she was going to pay Finch back when he wasn’t expecting it. 

“Tonight? No.” Shaw was done. She had other planes that involved Root and that four-post bed in her room. 

Reese had that look on his face when he was about to kneecap a gang of Samaritan agents. “Tomorrow is probably the day something will happen,” Reese said in a serious tone, “let’s skip tonight’s session, Finch.” The tall primary asset looked very solemnly at Finch. “And maybe skip tomorrow’s session, but especially tonight.” 

Root thought she might have actually heard Reese say ‘Please’ at the end of his sentence. 

Finch made his way slowly to the door. He gave another disapproving look over to a disheveled and sand-laden Bear. 

“If the Roths are involved with any of this, which it seems likely that they are, they may try something at any point, tonight or tomorrow during the renewing vows ceremony.”

Finch stood still and waited for some response from his teammates. There were a few sighs and eye rolls, and then a general movement started with everyone standing up and shuffling towards the door. 

“We need to monitor them at all times,” Finch said to the group, “which will be easy because of tonight’s activities. Miss Shaw, Miss Morgan and Miss Groves will watch over Gina while Mr. Reese, Mr. Fusco, and myself will watch over Craig.”

Reese rolled his eyes and looked at Zoe, who just shrugged her shoulders. 

Fusco and Root were the only ones amused by this information. Root intended on sneaking out of whatever tonight’s session was to spend more solo time with Shaw. And Fusco was just happy to still be on a tropical island instead of freezing his ass off in New York, although he did miss Lee. 

“I’m not going to another asinine session right now. We just saved an irrelevant number at the bar AND I got shot this morning,” Shaw said as she grabbed a protein bar off the counter and started shoving it in her mouth. Although, admittedly ever since Keahi had put the Hawaiian poultice on her wound, it had stopped throbbing. 

Finch looked at his watch. “I’m sorry Miss Shaw, but it’s time for us to attend tonight’s session.” He looked around the room very cautiously. 

Everyone resigned themselves to taking part in yet another session and shuffled towards the door. 

“Did everyone pack an overnight bag?” Finch asked as looked back at his teammates.

“Overnight? Seriously, Harold?” Shaw asked her in her most annoyed tone. 

Now it was Root’s turn to look annoyed and shoot eye daggers at Finch. 

“Never mind, I’m sure accommodations and amenities will be provided,” Finch forced a small smile on his face. 

The whole team turned their heads to Finch and let out a group sigh. 

*****

When the team arrived at the designated section of the resort, they were a little surprised. There were two signs, one for men and one for women. Since all the couples in the retreat had been heterosexual, they were to be separated for the night from their partners. 

“Wait, we’re being split up by gender tonight?” Shaw asked, dumbfounded. She didn’t like the sound of this at all. This sounded like some all night forced female pajama party.

Tinswell walked quickly into the entrance where all the couples had assembled. Everyone was there, even the Roths. 

“Before we separate for the evening from our life partners, we are behind schedule and I didn’t want to cancel this helpful experiment. So hopefully, if everyone isn’t too tired, we will do one more exercise before parting ways for a peaceful night’s rest,” Tinswell said with a warm smile and big arm gestures in her flowing robe. 

Shaw discreetly reached behind her back for her small piece, a carefully hidden handgun. Fusco saw this movement and put his arm around his fake wife’s waist. 

“Killing a nice lady therapist lady would be a new low for you,” Fusco whispered to Shaw. 

“You don’t know that,” Shaw whispered back to her fake husband. 

All the couples were assembled together in yet another large convention type room. They all stood around Tinswell, waiting for her instructions. There were boxes lined up against the back wall that had the IKEA stamp on them. 

“We are going to assemble one of the most difficult IKEA furniture pieces as a life partner exercise.” Tinswell motioned with her hands to the back wall where all the boxes were lined up. “Deep breathes, this might be our greatest challenge yet.”

Shaw rolled her eyes. Assembling dorky, hipster furniture? She wanted to walk out of the room and drag Root with her. 

Root had a wicked smile on her face as she looked over at Finch while he wasn’t paying attention. 

“Clinical Therapist Ramani Durvasula once said that the Liatorp IKEA piece of furniture is the ‘divorce maker.’” Tinswell said this so seriously and earnestly it sounded like she was delivering a TED Talk. “We are not assembling that one.” She paused for dramatic effect. “We are taking on the second most difficult piece. The PAX Wardrobe.”

Root smiled watching all of Shaw’s eye rolls; there were so many, and they were so epic. the petite primary asset wasn’t even remotely hiding her annoyance anymore. 

Tinswell continued on, "Durvasula also explained how the clean, stylish, spacious idealized homes in the showroom literally becomes a map of a relationship nightmare. She found that themed areas triggered related arguments: bedding (sex), kitchen goods (chores), the children’s section...too many triggers to mention." She paused for another dramatic effect moment. "There are relationship minefields in those boxes. Be gentle with each other and yourselves." 

The fake couples all glanced around to each other then to the other couples.

"Fifty bucks the young couple wins," Fusco whispered to Shaw.

"No. But fifty bucks Fred and Betty cry again," Shaw whispered back to Fusco. 

“The PAX Wardrobe has 150 parts. Sliding doors, numerous drawers, and pullout trays…” Tinswell went on describing the IKEA furniture piece. “…intricate pieces, each important for building a lasting foundation to store love and memories. Each single part, no matter how big or how small, is extremely important and beautiful.” 

“That stores love? I don’t get it,” Fusco blurted out, confused. 

“It’s a metaphor, Lionel, I think for a healthy relationship or something,” Root whispered over to Fusco. 

“Or something, for sure,” Fusco looked back and forth between Root and Shaw. 

“A cabinet? Great, can we get started?” Shaw blurted out. She thought the sooner they could assemble this stupid piece of furniture, the sooner she could drag Root off somewhere before the lady pajama party from hell started. 

If Root wanted a bachelorette party, Shaw might actually give her a lap dance. She really wanted a few more times and maybe a few times in the subway. She scowled at herself. The subway? Her brain, or more accurately her libido, had already had thoughts of taking Root on Finch’s desk in the subway. No, she had to shut that down. They had a deal; an island ‘No Fuss, No Muss’ agreement. If she prolonged this in New York, there was no telling where it would lead. And that would be bad she thought, right? Yet she wasn’t so sure anymore. Again, she blamed the island humidity for messing with her thinking, especially in regards to Root. 

The couples went about assembling their PAX Wardrobes. There were quite a few swear words, parts thrown down on the ground, and name calling going on in the room. It did appear the PAX Wardrobe was winning over most of the couples. 

“I’m going to shoot this piece of crap,” Shaw said quietly, so only her teammates could hear. 

“I’m right there with you, Shaw,” Reese said looking down at his mess of a wardrobe. 

Root thought about the image of Shaw and Reese whipping guns out and shooting the wood pieces to bits and she couldn’t hold down a small giggle. “Mayhem Twin Powers Activate.” 

Shaw and Fusco were the first couple to finish building their PAX wardrobe. Shaw hated the exercise, but she was going to be damned that a wardrobe was going to beat her.

Finch and Zoe’s wardrobe looked the worst, a quite unstable mess of wood not fit for any kind of storage. Finch at one point argued loudly with Tinswell and a slightly incoherent Joan, still high on painkillers for her leg, about possible missing pieces to his set. They assured him repeatedly he had all the pieces. He appeared to be going mad looking over the instructions and calculating the pieces and parts for the wardrobe. 

“I don’t understand. We followed the instructions. All the bags were sealed, but we do seem to be missing parts and instructions,” Finch scratched his head while Zoe gave up and sat on the floor in a relaxed pose. 

Root moved over to Shaw and leaned into her ear. “The Machine and I might have taken some pieces and instructions from Finch’s box and then sealed everything back up.” While she was there, she took a huge whiff of Shaw’s hair. 

Shaw smirked. She reminded herself never to make the hacker mad. 

When all the couples either gave up or were told to quit by Tinswell, they all surveyed their wardrobes. 

“This was helpful…” Gina Roth spoke. Her voice became wobbly, “…Craig and I had a fight this morning. We can’t seem to get in sync with each other…but this helped.”

Gina wiped away some tears while her husband Craig took her in his arms and hugged her tightly. The couple didn’t appear to be the masterminds of some international Internet take down. They appeared to be two people who needed furniture therapy to find the deeper truth behind their union. 

Shaw rolled her eyes once again. She can’t imagine how putting a piece of furniture together could help someone unless, of course, it was to organize one’s gun or ammo collection. 

Root looked at the Roths as if they were aliens. She couldn’t imagine a piece of furniture bringing a couple together. Now, maybe destroying a deadly virus that seemed like that might bring two people together. Or saving the world economy. Or decimating a Samaritan server facility in Jersey. 

All the couples stood around their furniture pieces. The only ones having finished the task to where it looked like the catalog photo were the young couple. They explained all the furniture in their apartment was IKEA so they a lot experience putting the Swedish products together. 

Finch continued to stand over his heap of a mess, dismayed. He wondered, how could he have invented artificial intelligence and yet he can’t put together a simple mass produced cabinet. 

Root had the wonderful feeling you get when all your devices are fully charged at the same time, that’s she glee she felt watching Finch frustrated and he had heaps more to come in the following months for shooting Shaw in her gorgeous, muscular leg. The Machine had already helped Root calculate 13,482 different small ways to make Finch’s life annoying for a few months in retaliation for his clumsiness in shooting Shaw. 

“Now comes the hardest part of the retreat for every union – spending a night apart.” Tinswell looked over the couples with a warm smile. “Please, say your goodbyes and head toward your assigned room.”

Before Tinswell could go further into her speech, Root and Shaw were already heading towards the door after very briefly nodding to their fake husbands, Shaw gave Fusco a hard slap on the back as he winced in pain. Fusco and Reese waved off their fake wives with little fanfare; they looked ready for a long nap. The other couples kissed and hugged several times with a few tears being shed. 

*****

The men and the women were separated into two massive suites. Each suite had two bedrooms. Since Mr. and Mrs. Bushtit were late additions, the sleeping arrangements were a little cramped. 

Joan wobbled into the women’s suite and looked around. “I’ve got an idea. Sam and Sammy can share the living room with me and Rochelle and Gina can share the first bedroom. Betty and Mrs. Bushtit can share the last room.”

“I prefer Zoe,” Zoe said quickly, and then added, “Could I possibly share with Gina? I wanted to hear more about bonding over creating the wardrobe together.” Zoe was such a skilled liar at times. 

“Oh, Zoe. Yes, that would be nice,” Gina responded with a smile.

Root and Shaw nodded to each other, so Zoe was watching over Gina. This was good. 

Joan hobbled over to Root and Shaw. “It’s okay. I won’t say anything if y’all want to you know…snuggle tonight.” Joan said quickly and winked at Root and Shaw.

Shaw looked up at Joan with a confused face. She was not a snuggler and she didn’t need some hiding place to snuggle. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Shaw said as she walked over to Joan to look and check Joan’s leg wrapping to make sure it was done properly. “I’m going to sleep and I’ll be thinking about how much I miss my husband, Lionel.” 

Shaw was surprised she was able to say that sentence without throwing up in her mouth. 

Root pulled on Shaw’s arm, then looked into her eyes and held her gaze. The thought of Shaw dreaming of Fusco almost made her throw up in her mouth.

Joan smiled at Root and Shaw. “Whatever you say.” Joan yelled out at Tinswell and smiled. 

Tinswell had breezed into the room and saw that everyone was getting settled for the night. Most of the women had changed into resort pajamas and were wearing fluffy robes. Shaw opted for the robe over her tank top and boy shorts. Root was wearing the floral print pajamas with no robe. 

“Just a few words before we go gently into that sweet land of slumber,” Tinswell motioned for all the women to come and sit in the living room. Tinswell had already had a quick meeting with the men. 

Shaw really wished she had some noise canceling headphones right now; she didn’t know how much words she could stand to hear, especially if they were more words in regards to relationships. 

“Let’s talk about our biggest fears. Fear can kill any relationship,” Tinswell said very seriously while sweeping her eyes across the room and looking at all the women. 

“And here I thought it was Fusco’s bad breath,” Shaw whispered to Root.

“Or John’s poor choice in casual shirts,” Root whispered back to Shaw. 

“Let’s go around the room and reveal our biggest fears; this is a safe place. We are all here to grow and learn, not to run away from fear or judge. Let’s all hold hands,” Tinswell reached and held Joan’s hand on one side and Betty’s hand on her other side. 

Root smirked knowing Shaw would really hate this exercise. She had to hold down a wide grin watching her petite primary asset hold hands with Rochelle and then, thankfully, she got to hold Shaw’s other hand. Root slowly ran her hand down Shaw’s arm until their fingers were intertwined. Shaw held her hand tightly. 

They went around the circle, listening to everybody’s fears. Betty was afraid the sexual spark would go out in her relationship with Fred, but considering they had been married for over four decades, it was pretty much agreed she didn’t have anything to worry about. Rochelle’s biggest fear was not having kids, again everyone reassured her she had plenty of time. Gina’s biggest fear would be that her and Craig would stop talking, not having any meaningful communication. She revealed that is what brought them to Tinswell, they didn’t know how to communicate with each other without someone’s feelings. 

Then it was Shaw’s turn, she hadn’t thought of anything while listening to the others so she had to wing it fast. 

“I’m not sure I could ever settle down in one place…like plant…roots…” Shaw did a quick glance around the room, not landing on Root’s face any longer than anyone else. “…yet…I don’t want to be entirely rootless…all the time I guess. Some roots aren’t too bad some times…I guess maybe.” 

Shaw didn’t want to look at Root. She had a feeling once she made eye contact with her; it was going to be hard to break it. She just waned to make a terrible pun. That’s all. 

“Don’t you have four children?” Gina asked with a confused look on her face towards Shaw. 

“Uh, yeah,” Shaw responded with a blank face. “The kids are very mobile.”

Root didn’t know it, but her face was beaming, her high wattage smile could power a few appliances right now. She didn’t want to read too much into Shaw’s words, just because she said those words didn’t mean she wanted them to continue on when they got back to New York. Shaw was probably just trying to say something she thought would sound okay in the group. Yet, it did give her hope. 

When it came to Root’s turn, she looked over at Shaw before she started. 

“I never want to be someone who wants someone to change for them. I like people for who they are, if they’re comfortable in their skin, then so I am,” Root stole another glance at Shaw who stared back briefly before dropping her eyes down to the floor. She felt her cheeks get warm. 

Tinswell sat for a moment staring at everyone as if absorbing everything that everyone said. She closed her eyes and took some deep breathes. 

“I think it’s time to call it a night. Get some restful sleep and be ready for a day of love and reaffirming all the love in your lives and the world,” Tinswell said this, going round the room and gave each woman a tight, warm hug. Shaw begrudgingly accepted her hug. 

Tinswell then instructed everyone to get some sleep. As the women milled around and headed towards their rooms, there was some chatter. 

“I can’t sleep without Fred. We have always slept together…oh my, that sounds scandalous,” Betty said with her face blushing. “…we haven’t slept a part for thirty seven years.” 

Shaw rolled her eyes. She couldn’t imagine not being able to sleep because someone wasn’t next to you. She slept better if someone wasn’t next to her. Although, she didn’t mind Root that much; the hacker didn’t seem to snore that loudly or move around that much during the night. And Bear was a good sleeping buddy. 

“Yeah, if Craig isn’t there with me, I just toss and turn all night,” Gina said with a thoughtful look on her face, “I guess like I will tonight.” 

Thankfully, then there were just three - Joan, Root and Shaw sharing the living room. And thankfully, there were two massive comfy couches. 

“You two can take that bigger couch and I’ll take this one,” Joan said without even any double meaning. 

Root and Shaw looked at each other a little awkwardly. It was one thing to share a bed in privacy, but it was kind of weird to share a couch with Joan in the room.

“I’m going to go for a run,” Shaw said quickly while looking around the living room suite. 

“With your leg wound?” Joan asked, very confused. She had herself a nice bed on the other couch, propping her injured leg. “Aw, look.” She lifted her phone for Root and Shaw to see. “Keahi says hi and wishes us a restful sleep.” Joan couldn’t sound more dopey and sappy if she tried. 

Root sat down on the couch and yanked on Shaw’s arm until she was sitting next to her. “We’re supposed to keep an eye on Gina. This is just for a few hours,” she whispered to Shaw. She really didn’t want Shaw to wander off, she was tired and wanted nothing more in the world to feel Shaw next to her in some physical way. 

Joan turned off the lamp and the living room suite was illuminated with the moonlight streaming through the large sliding glass doors looking out over the ocean. 

Shaw felt Root’s head softly land on her shoulder. She tilted her head slowly to see Root was falling asleep and was now using her shoulder as a pillow. She pushed Root’s head so she could pull them both down to lay on the couch, not facing Joan who thankfully was facing towards the couch anyway. The only way they were going to fit on the couch was spooning. Shaw gritted her teeth, damn spooning. Then she ground her teeth further because Root was already falling asleep in the big spoon position.

As soon as Root was horizontal, she pushed one arm under Shaw’s head and her other hand ran up and down Shaw’s back, underneath her shirt. Even though she was fighting sleep, feeling Shaw’s warm skin, tracing her many scars was also keeping Root slightly awake. It was too soothing though; having Shaw in her arms made her feel completely safe and that feeling while scary also, was making her very drowsy and extremely happy. She couldn’t keep her eyes open. 

Root did manage to open one eye before it was too late, she lifted her head to sneak a peak at Shaw, she watched as her petite primary asset bite her lower lip and saw her eyelids get all droopy. She found herself dozing off to sleep immediately, cursing exhaustion for taking away her chance to stare at Shaw in such kind of a blissed out state.

Shaw couldn’t fight sleep any more, Root’s hands roaming and exploring all over her back made her feel so warm and strangely was fast lulling her into a deep slumber. And she could feel Root had fallen asleep because her hands eventually stilled and she wrapped her arm around Shaw’s waist. Okay, so Shaw thought, sometimes little spoons weren’t too bad; there were many times when little spoons were more useful than big spoons. Ice cream was a good example, and like the tasty treat, Root’s body did feel pretty sweet at the moment.


	23. Jinkies and a Ruh roh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you mongrelkoi – you are simply the best.  
> Thank y'all so much for the comments and feedback :-)   
> Massive THANKS to w3llthatdidntwork for all the proofing and support! If you haven’t checked out her stuff – it’s amazing!

Shaw felt warm all over, but not like sweaty warm; although, there were parts of her body that were definitely overheating. She had a smirk because she could feel that some time during the night she became the big spoon. Then her smile faded when she realized one of the reasons for her overheating was that her hand was under Root’s shirt holding onto her breast. Yup, she realized that would explain all the sweeping tingly sensations running through her body and the soft whimpers that kept popping up from a deep trance like sleep Root was in. Her other arm was under Root’s head and then tangled in her hair. Her face bad been buried in Root’s hair, with her breathing on the back of her neck. Root still smelled really good, whatever floral scented resort soap she had used on both of them yesterday had a nice lingering scent. 

Shaw’s eyelids still felt heavy; she didn’t want to wake up from this cozy cocoon. She heard a muffled voice talking far away. It was enough to alert her keen operative senses. She was bummed that sleep had overtaken her and Root before they could slip out of the room and do anything involving more exciting utensils like scissoring or forking, instead of just bland spooning. However, she was surprised to find spooning had it’s own merits, which generated a low hum of arousal that lasted even longer. If Joan hadn’t been a few feet away, Shaw would already have her hand down Root’s pants or have them off completely and she would be waking up the hacker in a more frisky way. 

Instead, Shaw slowly pulled her hand away from Root’s breast, giving the nipple a slight squeeze. She then ran her hand all the way down Root’s torso and leg. She lifted up Root’s head as softly as she could to pull her arm out; she then laid down the wavy, mussed locks back on the couch cushion. There was still the muffled voice to investigate. She looked over and saw Joan was on the other couch softly snoring away. The beginning of sunlight was slowly streaming through the room as dawn was breaking. Shaw looked over to the balcony and saw Gina on her phone, she couldn’t hear the conversation but the woman seemed to be stressed. 

Root rolled over and tried to open her eyes. Shaw slowly came into focus above her face, she didn’t think she would ever get tired or bored of seeing Shaw next to her; in any capacity. Especially in a morning capacity with Shaw’s hair flowing down around her face in an adorable messy look.

“Hey…” Root said in a sleepy, hoarse voice as she stretched, she wanted to reach out to Shaw and pull her back down on the couch; then remembered Joan was nearby. She did see Shaw’s eyes rake over her body as she stretched; she really wanted to pull her down now to the couch after seeing those eyes darken. Having Shaw massage her breasts all night did nothing but drive her totally crazy to the point of almost having to go the bathroom and rub one out herself. 

“We’re meeting the guys at the buffet,” Shaw said as she looked over to Joan. “Finch has some news.” She brought her eyes back to Root’s then her eyes lowered and focused on Root’s lips. Shaw wanted to kiss her, but also didn’t want Joan to wake up and make some idiotic juvenile ‘woooo’ noise, so she tried to control her lusting for Root’s lips. 

Of course Root got the message. A night of mutual spooning Shaw had set her arousal on an even higher level, if that was possible. She had to fight during the night at times not to lower her hands or start sucking on the back of Shaw’s neck. Or even sucking on Shaw’s perfect ass, then Joan would snore and felt like a bucket of ice water was being poured over her head. 

“Do we have time to stop off in our room to….change clothes,” Root asked staring back at Shaw then focusing on those delectable lips. She didn’t want so much to change clothes, as she wanted Shaw out of clothes. 

Shaw got this message loud and clear; she rolled her eyes with a smirk. 

“No, let’s go.” She grabbed her shoes, stood up and quietly moved to the door. She put her hair in a ponytail as they exited. 

Root stretched again and got up from the couch, following Shaw out the door before Joan or anyone else could stop them. She thought maybe there might be a chance for some alone time after meeting Finch. 

“I’m right behind you,” Root said as she watched Shaw’s behind the whole time they sneaked out of the massive suite unnoticed by the sleeping Joan. 

*****

When they got in the elevator and the doors closed, Root reached over and pulled Shaw into a fierce kiss, smashing their lips together roughly. Shaw slammed Root against the opposite wall of the elevator, grabbing hold of Root’s ass with one hand and her neck with the other. Root let out moan as Shaw’s tongue explored her mouth and licked her lips, then the doors were opening far too soon. Pulling away from each other was like pulling magnets from each other, there was a strong pull to get back together; for their lips to lock again. When they slowly exited the elevator they both looked dazed with slightly puffy lips and looked like they had kissed each other senseless. 

The kiss in the elevator wasn’t ideal but it was better than nothing. Root couldn’t wait to get her hands on Shaw after what she had said last night in the group. Granted she was just saying that for her cover, however she didn’t have to use the word ‘rootless’ Root thought. She knew it wasn’t a declaration of love or anything, yet it made her heart flutter and beat even faster now when Shaw was around. 

Root and Shaw continued walking to the buffet, they did look like they had been hardcore making out; they had both slightly swollen lips, messy hair in certain places and were breathing heavily. They walked quickly to the buffet and smoothed down their hair on the way. Root reached and pulled on Shaw’s hair to even it out, Shaw swatted her hand away.

Fusco and Reese were eating at a table and saw their two female teammates enter, one swatted at the other and the other grinning in return. The guys turned to each other and smiled. Root and Shaw grabbed some plates and loaded them up at the buffet. They eventually made it back to the table, Root holding one of Shaw’s extra plates. 

“Let’s not rib them just yet.” Reese whispered to Fusco, nodding as his two female teammates sat down across from them and started eating. 

Both watched as Root reached over and snatched some fries without Shaw breaking her hand or slicing off one of the hacker’s fingers with a steak knife. 

“You’re right. Coca Puffs just took some food from Shorty’s plate and didn’t get stabbed or lose a finger. It’s kind of cute.” Fusco smiled and whispered back to Reese. 

“Yeah, it kind of is.” Reese had a warm smile and wistful look on face as he watched his two female teammates interact with each other. “It’s like watching wild animals interact in their natural habitat...which appears to be a buffet for Shaw.”

“It’s nice to see the two weirdos finally kind of together…or whatever they’re doing. Unless, of course they break-up, I don’t think the city or any of us will survive. We will all be dead by their hands.” Fusco had a serious, somber look on his face. 

Both men shuddered as they continued to watch their female teammates discreetly interact with each other. 

“You might be right,” Reese said as he watched Root and Shaw, he made a slight grimace. “There’s not enough firearms or therapy in the world if that happens.”

Root and Shaw paused their eating and stared at their teammates across the table with curious looks. 

“What are you losers whispering about?” asked Shaw as she shoved some pancakes into her mouth. 

“I was just saying, I don’t think any of us belong at a wedding,” Fusco chuckled to himself.

“Even I appreciate a fairytale ending, Lionel,” Root smiled at the detective. “Family politics, overcooked meat, monogamy…what’s not to love?”

“Really? Just can’t picture you at a wedding,” Fusco scrunched up his face at Root. 

“Please, I left a girl at the altar just last year,” Root snapped back to Fusco with the most adorable, actually honest look on her face. 

“What?” Shaw asked, paused in between shoveling food in her mouth. Her brows creased and studying Root closely. Did Root just say she almost got married to some woman? That was a statement she didn’t like hearing, even worse than hearing Root had to marry Reese. 

“No, need to be jealous. She was a job,” Root smiled back as she snuck another fry off of Shaw’s plate without losing a finger. 

Shaw shook her head, rolled her eyes and continued eating. 

Root had stopped paying attention, she had the faraway look in her eyes; the Machine was talking to her. Her eyebrows creased and she looked around the restaurant. 

Suddenly, Finch walked up quickly, looking very alarmed. “I’m getting information that something very bad is going to happen.” The man still looked so out of place in casual attire, which were long shorts and a floral button up shirt. 

“The Machine just told me the same thing Harry. She doesn’t have the whole picture yet, it’s something very dangerous,” Root stood up. “And possibly, catastrophic on many levels.” 

“I would consider having to marry Fusco on that level,” Shaw spat out in between bites of food shoveling. She thought, this might be the last meal she gets for a while considering the amount of drama Finch and Root were laying on. 

“Hey, there Crabcakes, right back at you,” Fusco gave some side eye to his fake wife. 

“We need to join the others, keep an eye on everyone,” Finch said while Root had already walked off. “We have to be on high alert, the information the Machine gave me was very dire.” 

Shaw dropped her fork in frustration in not getting to finish her pancakes. She grabbed some croissants and a banana to go. Her biggest concern was making sure she didn’t really end up married to Fusco, because that would be a dire situation indeed. 

*****

All the couples met up near the beach area; there was a huge arch off in the distance on the sand, decorated with flowers and flowing pastel colored fabric blowing in the wind. With the waves crashing off behind as the backdrop, the scene did look like a cheesy romance novel cover or a beach wedding dream Pintrest board. 

There were bungalows off to the side of the large resort, nice changing areas for fancy beachgoers. Joan was standing by the entrance telling people which bungalow to go to. She also instructed everyone to prepare and dress for the renewing vows session, continuing the corny tradition of not seeing each other until the ceremony. 

Root and Shaw did a quick glance to each other as they walked up to Joan. This is where being fake wives finally came into good play they both thought, they could go help each other undress then maybe stay undressed for a bit. Carve out some more alone time to get through this hideous renewing vows therapy session. 

“Sorry, you two are not in the same bungalow. I tried to rearrange it my friends,” Joan whispered to them. “Look, Keahi texted me this morning,” Joan shoved her phone into Root and Shaw’s face. 

Root was disappointed as she feigned interest in Joan’s text. She thought she heard Shaw grumble a few swear words towards Joan. 

Shaw didn’t really care what they were changing into, but she definitely wanted to help Root get changed out of her clothes. Falling asleep with Root last night was a lot nicer than she ever expected. Shaw admitted that was a first, it wasn’t as gross as she thought it would be, it was just really weird. And being pressed up against Root for hours did not help quench her libido at all, just completely intensified it. 

Tinswell appeared wearing another flowing robe outfit; she almost looked as if she floated over to the area. She hugged both Root and Shaw, then hugged everyone else and did some big arm gestures. 

“We are going to break off in pairs to help each other dress and prepare for our renewal of…eternal love,” Tinswell smiled at them then moved on to greet the others. 

Shaw thought she was going to throw up, she was reaching her ultimate maximum for flowered relationship talk.

Root moved over closer to stand near Shaw, she discreetly squeezed her hand with a knowing smirk. 

Joan started rattling off the bungalow assignments to everyone. 

“Zoe and Betty are in bungalow four. Sammy and Gina are in bungalow five. Sam and Rochelle in bungalow six.”

Reese, Root, Fusco and Shaw all froze for a moment; they all turned and looked at each other. The unspoken dialogue between their eyes, ‘Rochelle?’ Then the younger woman from the younger couple, who they basically ignored the whole time, went and stood next to Root. The hacker turned to Rochelle and gave her best fake smile. 

“Lionel and Craig are in bungalow seven. Mr. Bushtit and Fred in bungalow eight. And John and Brayden in bungalow nine.” Joan read aloud from her clipboard. 

Again, the team all looked quickly to each other. Fusco even mouthed, ‘Brayden?’ to his other teammates with a confused look on his face. 

The twosomes walked off to their assigned bungalows to get dressed for the renewing vows session. Bear trotted along next to Finch, he wasn’t going to miss this fun. Four people in particular were on high alert and looking around constantly for any incoming danger. Shaw and Fusco who were assigned the Roths were super focused in watching their every move. 

Once Shaw and Gina got inside their bungalow, the petite primary asset started asking the woman rapid fire questions. One big question she wanted answered. 

“Who were you on the phone with this morning?” Shaw stared intensely at Gina. 

“That’s not any of your business,” Gina said as she walked off to the bathroom to start getting ready. She went to close the door but Shaw stopped it with her foot. She then pulled the woman back out to the living room. 

Shaw jumped up behind Gina and put her in a headlock. 

“Who were you talking to?” Shaw demanded in her most threatening voice. 

Gina started yelling, “What are you crazy! Let me go!” She tried hitting Shaw’s arms. 

Shaw did her best lethal growl, “Who…were…you…talking…to?” as she held tight on her grip around Gina’s neck. 

Gina started coughing and gasping for breath, “Hotel concierge you psycho!”

Shaw let her go and stood back. “Why?”

“I wanted to surprise Craig at the renewing vows with his favorite cake but they messed up the order. They made buttercream frosting instead of cream cheese frosting.” Gina said in a harsh tone as she stood up and looked at Shaw like she was a lunatic. 

“Oh…that uh, sucks. Uh, sorry about,” Shaw stared at Gina, the woman was telling the truth, her gut told her. She then walked over to the couch and opened one of the boxes waiting for them. “Shall we get dressed?” She said in the most normal tone, not as if she just threatened the woman’s life. 

Gina shook her head in disbelief and stared at Shaw. 

“I’m nervous about the ceremony,” Shaw stared back, hoping her lame excuse worked. “And I’ve taken a lot of Krav Maga classes lately…to uh, spice up the marriage.” Shaw inwardly cringed thinking of being married to Fusco and spicing it up. 

Gina studied Shaw closely; she walked over and invaded her personal space really staring at her face. “You know what else might spice up your marriage. Can I give you a make-over?”

Shaw wanted to put the woman back in a headlock. 

Meanwhile, in bungalow seven, Fusco was fairing a little better but not much with Craig. His detective skills had honed in that this wasn’t the guy. He studied the guy and he didn’t seem to have an evil bone in his body. The two men went about getting dressed and talking about sports. 

In bungalow six, Root was very preoccupied listening to the Machine and any possible threats instead of listening to Rochelle rattle on about renewing her vows and how excited she was. 

“I can marry Brayden every day, I love him so much. It’s magical every day,” Rochelle had a real dopey look on her face. 

Root stopped listening to the Machine for a second and stared at Rochelle, she admitted the dopey look was sweet. The whole thing with Shaw and their no fuss, no muss island agreement started bothering her. She knew she wasn’t going to be able to honor it once they got back to the city like she promised before. She was afraid she moved into the dopey category and would never get over being dopey for Shaw. And she didn’t want to. She didn’t know if Shaw would be okay with that and that was beginning to really scare her. 

In bungalow nine, Reese and Brayden had finished getting dressed really fast then sat quietly and awkwardly waiting to be called to the session. There was no talking, there was just sitting. Brayden had the same dopey look on his face as Rochelle. Reese looked over at him and smiled. 

Soon it was time, Joan wobbled up with her crutch to get everyone to accompany her down to the beach, to the altar set up on the sand under the arch. Everyone started slowly exiting their bungalows in their wedding dresses and tuxedoes. 

Fusco walked out and saw Shaw walking towards the beach. She looked beyond stunning. 

“Coca Puffs is going to foam at the mouth when she sees Crabby pants.” Fusco said to Reese quietly when his teammate came up to stand next to him. Both men smiled. 

Root had just stepped out of her bungalow when she spotted Shaw, in a wedding dress. Shaw was in a wedding dress. Shaw’s hair was down and flowing over her perfectly sculpted shoulders. Shaw was in a wedding dress. This last statement was on repeat in Root’s brain. Root stood frozen, Shaw looked like a vision. Root was so awestruck by her beauty and completely smitten with seeing her petite primary asset in a wedding dress she slipped and nearly fell flat on her face. Instead she knocked down a flower display, which caused a loud crash. She nearly lost her bouquet of flowers trying to hold on and not fall. It was quite the loud spectacle. And her bouquet of flowers did end up mangled, but she didn’t care; she saw Shaw in a wedding dress. 

Fusco looked over and let out little chuckle watching Coca Puffs lose her shit over Shaw. 

“Called it,” he whispered to Reese. 

Root continued to stare at Fusco’s fake wife and wasn’t able to walk at the same time. When Fusco took a look over at his fake wife she was pretending pretty hard, but he could tell she was stealing glances left and right at Coca Puffs. Root looked stunning as well, they all cleaned up really nice. He thought to himself, those two could not keep their eyes off each other, which probably meant the very bad thing that might actually happen probably would happen since these two idiots can’t stop staring at each other instead of checking perimeters. 

All the couples continued walking down the beach. Tinswell was standing at the altar, waiting for everyone. When everyone finally arrived, Root knocked over a rope stand because she was staring too hard at Shaw again. And Shaw not paying attention to anything Fusco said at all had to be told several times where to stand. The couples were lined up in front of the altar. Even Zoe and Finch were forced to partake in this ceremony. Finch was finally relieved to put on a proper suit again. Zoe kept watching John; he was quite dashing in his tuxedo, much more so than his casual shirts he had been wearing on the island. And she hoped never to see him in a bowling shirt again. 

“Hello, everyone. Today is a truly wonderful, blessed day,” Tinswell smiled warmly at everyone at the table. “One last therapy building exercise…our big finale. We might have saved the most difficult, challenging, rewarding relationship building exercise for the last.” 

Root put her arm through Reese’s arm; she squeezed and stared up in his blue eyes. Suddenly, she felt heat behind her, a spark too. 

“You don’t have to be so convincing in love with John,” Shaw whispered behind Root, under the guise she was fixing the back of her dress. 

Shaw moved her hands down Root’s back pretending to fix her unbroken zipper. Her warm fingers brushing up against Root’s smooth skin, sent shivers up and down both of their bodies. 

Root smirked, “When I was Caroline Tuning, he saved my life, gave me chocolate and held my hands.”

Shaw seethed. “He what?” She looked at Reese who only raised his eyebrows and shrugged. 

“He was protecting Caroline Tuning. The chocolate was nice. I like your hands better,” Root turned around under the guise of helping Shaw with her flower bouquet, she said the last part in Shaw’s ear. Root then reached for Shaw’s hands, she slowly linked them together, intertwining their fingers and was surprised the petite primary asset complied. It only lasted for a moment then they had to part and stand by their fake husbands. 

Thankfully, Tinswell didn’t give another long speech. She instructed the couples to pair up and get ready to exchange their vows. 

“Fusco, switch places with me. The sun is in my eyes on this side,” Shaw pushed her fake hubby so she could stand facing the opposite direction. 

Fusco squawked a bit, he didn’t want the sun in his eyes either; yet he was a gentlemen and more importantly Shaw could seriously kick his ass so he traded spots with her. 

As soon as they switched places, Fusco didn’t really notice the sun being in his eyes, what he did notice was his new view looked out over the water. His original position had a direct view of Coca Puffs; which was now Shaw’s, he smiled. So maybe his hot headed, grumpy partner had a huge soft romantic side after all. If they were going to have to do this ridiculous exercise, maybe the angry firecracker wanted to be able to look at the one person she might actually mean these words for one day. 

“Let’s begin our vows….deep breathes,” instructed Tinswell making big movements of dramatic breathing, “one…two…three…four…five…inhale….exhale…deep breathes…cleanse your lungs.” 

“More deep breathing?” Reese whispered to Root who smiled warmly at her fake hubby. 

“Do you think any of these exercises might help you with Zoe?” asked Root to Reese who raised his eyebrows and stole a glance over to Zoe. 

Zoe looked stunning as well and with her heels, towered over Finch. They did not make the most believable couple. 

Shaw turned to look at Fusco; she pulled a piece of paper out from her dress. 

“I got us covered on the vows, I heard this song at the gym one day while working out, I think it will be romantic enough while also not being completely gross.” Shaw smoothed out the piece of paper and flashed it to Fusco. “Plus, it mentions Batman.” 

Fusco looked down at his fake wife with actual adoration. “Shorty, I’m not sure it’s a romance song if it mentions the caped crusader.”

“Did you write up anything smart ass?” Shaw sassed back to her fake husband. 

“I can think of more romantic songs, there’s this song Lee used to sing…goes something like…” Fusco tilted his head, closed his eyes and started singing. “..Love You Like A Love Song Baby…see that sounds more romantic.”

“Fusco, I already have this one written down. But believe me…” Shaw actually sung in a soft voice to her fake husband. “No one compares, you stand alone to every record I own, pain in my ass that’s what you are. A pain that goes on and on,” Shaw made a motion with her hands while glaring at her fake husband. 

“That’s not half bad,” Fusco was impressed with his fake wife’s singing ability. Shaw just rolled her eyes at him. 

They were the first couple to have to do their vows; Tinswell instructed them to speak from deep within their hearts. 

Fusco read off the paper that Shaw handed him, _”I’ve been reading books of old, the legends and the myths. Achilles and his gold, Hercules and his gifts. Spiderman’s control, and Batman with his fists…_ ” Fusco paused at this and glanced over to Reese, then turned to Shaw and continued with serious look on his face. “ _…And clearly I don’t see myself upon that list._ ” That part kind of stung Fusco, he actually related to that lyric. 

Shaw motioned for Fusco to stop reading; she took the paper from him. She breathed in deeply, started her part. _“But She said…_ ” Shaw paused for a moment because someone’s phone beeped at that exact moment, Shaw smirked to herself thinking of course that pesky AI is so vain she thinks this vow is about her. She continued on, “ _…She said…where’d you wanna go? How much you wanna risk? I’m not looking for somebody with some super human gifts…some superheroes…some fairytale bliss. Just something I can turn to…somebody I can…kiss.”_ Shaw’s eyes betrayed her and she looked over at Root, who stared back at her intensely with unabashedly heart eyes. “I want something just like this.” The last part Shaw said in a very hurried tone as she looked back into Fusco’s eyes. 

Tinswell smiled so very warmly at Fusco and Shaw. “That was so lovely and beautiful.” 

“You may kiss your life mate now,” said an over exuberant Tinswell. 

Shaw rolled her eyes, leaned in and gave a quick kiss to Lionel; it was the type of kiss if someone was being forced to kiss a distant relative. 

“Not much spark for a firecracker like you,” smirked the detective to his fake wife. 

All eyes now turned to Root and Reese. They stared into each other’s eyes. They stared so long everyone started to get a little uncomfortable except Tinswell who just smiled warmly and kept nodding at them. 

Finally, Reese said softly. “I love you.” The sentence actually sounded heart felt as he gazed into Root’s eyes. 

“Ditto,” Root responded back quickly to Reese as she smiled at him and then touched his cheek. 

Shaw rolled her eyes and then turned to Fusco who also rolled his eyes. They shook their heads in unison. 

Tinswell and everyone else waited for more. Root and Reese just stood still and silent, after a few awkward moments. 

“Well, very clear, brief and concise,” offered Tinswell as she watched the curt declaration of love between Root and Reese. 

Reese and Root continued their stare contest. Root was pretty sure she could beat her fake husband. 

“You may kiss your life mate now,” said an over exuberant Tinswell pointing to the two fake couples, who all four inwardly cringed. 

“Well, John…” Root was surprised when Reese brought his hands up to her face, cupped both sides and leaned in for a tender, sweet kiss. It was payback time. 

Root stood stunned for a second then kissed back very briefly for the show of it. Shaw looked on with the meanest scowl she could muster which was pretty damn mean. She then turned to Zoe who had a highly amused look on her face, as if her and John had some kind of payback plan for all of Root’s teasing.

Suddenly, every single person’s phone sent off high-pitched alarms. The kind of high-pitched alarm that isn’t programmed into anyone’s phone, the kind of alarm that screams panic and breeds fear. People were shouting from the resort and starting to run around. Everyone looked around at the ceremony completely baffled mixed with some fearful expressions. 

Shaw cursed the stupid wedding dress that didn’t have pockets, she yanked Fusco’s phone away from him. She looked over at Root as most of the color drained from her face. She looked down and read the message on Fusco’s phone, the message that was being sent to everyone’s phone. 

**“BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”**

The entire team turned to each other in horror.

“This couldn’t have happened five minutes earlier? BEFORE I was forced to kiss Fusco!” Shaw shouted. 

“Well, we know what the very bad thing is now,” Root tilted her head and watched everyone around them running around in mass chaos. 

“Guess it goes without saying Finch, this truly is a all hands on deck situation now,” Reese said in a somber voice, he reached out and squeezed Zoe’s hand. “Except you Zoe, I want you to take Bear to the hatch and wait for us.” 

“No, John. I’m staying with you,” Zoe said in a very determined voice and she looked deeply into his eyes and kissed him quickly as the chaos around them grew larger and more frantic. 

Bear barked very loudly, he jumped up and almost knocked Finch down. 

“Bear ga zitten!” Finch said, trying to hold onto his leash. 

Bear kept barking, his eyes focused off in the distance to the side of the resort. 

Shaw looked in the direction of where Bear was barking. 

“That’s my boy.” She scratched his head. “Over there, I think we have something. There’s a helicopter about to take off. I’m going to stop them.” 

Root looked off to the resort, “Harry, I have an idea on how to stop the missile but we need some mainframe server strength.”

“Let’s go to the server room of the resort, it's closer. I’m not sure we would make it to the hatch in time,” said Finch as he started to walk off. 

Shaw then threw her silly bouquet of flowers into Fusco’s chest and stormed up to Root.

Root stopped before walking off with Finch, she wondered if her favorite primary asset had thought of her while saying the cheesy vows. As soon as Shaw stopped and turned around to face her, she thought maybe that Shaw did think of her. Shaw looked up into her eyes, then trailed down her face to Root’s lips. Root returned the look and then feasted her eyes on Shaw’s lips as well. They both moved like a well-rehearsed orchestra as their lips played a symphony.

“At long last! Love wins!” yelled Tinswell excitedly and very loudly with her arms outstretched over her head as she ran back to the resort for shelter amidst all the chaos and screaming going on. She beamed over at Root and Shaw and then started running again. 

Root threw her bouquet of flowers at Reese, so she could wrap one arm around Shaw’s wedding dress wrapped waist and one arm in her thick, gorgeous hair running down her back. She thrust her tongue in Shaw’s open mouth and was rewarded with an unexpected moan. 

Shaw meant to just kiss Root briefly before running off but now her tongue had its own agenda. Damn it Root for tasting so good, this morning it was like a mix of blueberry pancakes and apples. Shaw pulled her lips very reluctantly away from Root’s lips. 

“Had to get that Fusco taste out of my mouth,” Shaw smirked to Root. “I’ll go get the bad guys. You go stop the missile. Deal?”

“Deal,” Root pulled Shaw into one more passion possibly the end of the world infused kiss before letting her go, she needed one more kiss in case it was the last. She bit down on Shaw’s lower lip before letting go. 

Shaw pushed her hands against Root’s chest; they had a job to do. People to save. She stared up into Root’s eyes and nodded then grabbed Bear’s leash, unhooked it and watched the greatest dog she knew sprint off toward catching the bad guys. She followed after her canine teammate; she tore the middle part of her wedding dress to run faster. Her hair and dress blowing in the wind as she ran as fast as she could towards the helicopter before it took off. Her leg wasn’t even hurting that bad, Keahi’s Hawaiian poultice really was a magic cure. 

Root stood mesmerized watching Shaw run off in a wedding dress; it was quite the sight to behold; the ultimate runaway bride. 

“JOAN! JOAN!” Keahi came barreling down the beach looking frantically for the pesky assistant. She then saw her sitting down on the sand with her crutches next to her. 

“Oh my gawd! Keahi!” Joan started bawling, “I love you!” She latched onto Keahi and was never letting go. 

The tall, muscular Hawaiian woman swooped up Joan in her arms and carried her off. “Get to safety!” She yelled at Root and the others and pointed to the resort. 

“That’s kind of sweet, while being overly dramatic and corny,” Root said while getting disgusted looks from her teammates. “What? We’re going to fix this. Let’s go boys.” 

Root and Finch went off to the resort server room. Fusco, Reese and Zoe went about helping everyone else that was in need, which was a lot considering people were making very poor decisions at the moment in the midst of possible decimation of the immediate area. 

Root was about to enter the resort building, she turned to look out and far off she could see Bear knock down someone and Shaw in the wedding dress lunge and tackle someone. She smiled, took a mental picture and continued hurrying towards the server room. 

Shaw punched and punched until the guy she tackled lost consciousness. Then she stood up and stormed off to stop the remaining people from hopping onto the helicopter. She ran as fast as her good leg and injured leg would take her, she barely missed the take off of the helicopter. She jumped for the landing skids of the helicopter; she got it and hung on as it lifted off the ground. Bear on the ground barked after her and stayed put over the unconscious bad guy. She pulled herself up to fully grasp the landing skid with her arms and legs; the helicopter was getting further away from the ground. 

Root and Finch got to the server room and were relieved it was deserted. They began hacking their way into multiple agencies and systems to find a quick solution. 

“Is there a drone we could hack to intercept the missile?” asked Root to both Finch and the Machine while she furiously typed on a keyboard. “A satellite?”

Finch concentrated hard on his computer screen. “The US Military and Intelligence agencies have satellites in high earth orbit scouring the globe for anything amiss like this,” his eyes continued to scan through enormous amounts of data. “I can’t believe there isn’t more chatter about this. All the chatter seems to be on social media.” Suddenly, Finch pulled back and readjusted his glasses. “Until now…everything just went black. Everything is offline.” He looked over to Root with a wild, concerned expression. 

Root leaned over and looked at his screen. “Someone is controlling the undersea cable. We didn’t fix it,” she said sadly. 

“Or that was a diversion for the missile,” Finch said while typing away. “I found something.” He pointed to his screen. Root squinted her eyes and nodded. 

“I’m on it,” Root began to furiously type away again on her keyboard. 

Meanwhile, Shaw pulled herself into the helicopter cockpit and smacked and punched the two goons in the back seat. She had lost her gun; it had fallen off into the ocean. She couldn’t see the faces of the two people in the front seat. She did manage to steal a gun from one of the guys from the backseat and pointed it at the two masked people after she knocked the guys in the backseat out. 

“Land this thing now!” Shaw yelled at them as she pointed the gun, about three seconds from knocking them out and commandeering the helicopter. 

“No, we would all die,” said a raspy male voice from under a ski mask in the front seat. 

Shaw paused for a moment that was a good point. She refused to believe a missile would hit, that her whole team could be gone, that Root could be gone. She gritted her teeth.

Back at the server room, Root stood up, her flowing wedding dress catching on everything. She tugged and pulled it away, tearing parts of it. 

“I’m going Harry,” Root turned and headed for the door. 

“Root…don’t. It’s too dangerous,” Finch said with worry in his voice. “We still aren’t certain there is a missile, this could all be some grand ruse. And if it’s true, you’re safer here.” 

“Harry, we can’t take that chance,” Root pulled her hair back into a ponytail with a scrunchy. “If you could give Shaw a message for me…” Her shoulders were tense, in the strapless wedding dress it was more obvious; along with the pensive look on her face. 

“You need to deliver the message yourself,” Finch knew he wasn’t going to change her mind. “As we learned this week, it’s all about communication.” He gave her a weak smile. “Be careful.” 

“Will do, Harry,” Root walked and disappeared amongst the chaos. “This might be only chance of stopping it.” She said only to herself. 

The most stressful three minutes of the team’s life went on for what felt like three decades, until Shaw heard Finch’s voice over the communication links. 

“The missile has been disarmed,” Finch said with a huge wave of relief. 

“Copy that Finch,” Shaw turned to the pilot of the helicopter. “Land this now, because y’all are going to prison after I kick your asses.” 

As soon as the helicopter landed, Shaw hauled the two masked individuals out of the helicopter. Reese, Fusco and Zoe came running up to help her. Shaw yanked off their masks, revealing Fred and Betty. Everyone stood surprised for a few seconds. 

“You two?” Shaw asked with raised eyebrows to Fred and Betty who scowled back at her. “You two disrupted the Internet and a launched ballistic missile?” She was still confused on how this older couple got everything accomplished or if Samaritan had a senior citizen brigade. 

“And we would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling middle aged people!” Betty yelled at the team. Bear trotted up and barked at her. “And your stupid dog!”

Bear growled at Fred and Betty, while Shaw smiled down at her best buddy. 

“Where’s Root?” asked Shaw looking around for the hacker. 

Finch walked up to the group. “I’m not sure where Root is…” he paused, “…she had a more difficult task of stopping the missile.” 

Shaw looked at Finch with a cold, intense glare. 

Root awoke with a start, she gasped for air. She had been electrocuted and knocked out, but she had stopped the missile. She looked down at her wedding dress and saw black stains covering it, she smirked. She felt her hair; it was wild and slightly singed in parts. The Machine had just sent her photos of Shaw’s wedding dress, it was covered in blood, oil and ripped in several places. Now their wedding dresses seemed more appropriate and more fitting for the two of them. 

She slowly shook her head and got oriented again. She stood up and walked over to the edge of the roof, she could see her team down below and she felt tears well up in her eyes.

Root wandered back into the resort, making her way through the lobby cautiously as all the chaos was still being calmed down. She was suddenly pulled into a warm, fierce hug in the lobby. 

“I’m so happy you’re okay,” Tinswell pulled back and studied Root’s face; she had tears in her eyes. “The others are down by the beach, the police are arriving. She’s there and she’s okay too.” She ran her hands down Root’s arm in a comforting gesture. 

“Thanks,” Root said softly to Tinswell. “I learned a lot this week.”

“It was the two of you,” Tinswell said while looking at Root, her eyes had squinted which made the therapist look all the more wise. 

“John and I were the co-workers who didn’t get along? You knew we were phonies?” A smirk spread across Root’s face. Root studied Tinswell’s face, a wise face with beautiful lines of wisdom and experience. She remembered the mysterious overview Tinswell had given over the couples during one of the sessions. Once again she would blame John for their couple’s performance issues. 

They both smiled at each other. 

“No.” Tinswell smiled looking at Root then squeezed her hand. 

Root was impressed with this woman. 

“Every therapy task…the two of you have this rhythm…this almost unspoken nature or melody or code with each other.” The well-spoken therapist seemed at a loss for more coherent words. “It doesn’t happen often. Hang on to it.” This last part was said with sadness in Tinswell’s eyes. “Give her time and space, she’ll come around.” She squeezed Root’s arm before walking off to check on others. 

Root smiled specifically at the usage of the word code, yet she also felt awful at the same time because she wanted more time with Shaw. She didn’t want some temporary agreement, she wanted a full time everywhere all-inclusive package agreement. She wanted a whole life or whatever they might have ahead of them in the uncertain chaotic world with this shared code they found. She finally felt like she had found a place where she belonged, a place where she didn’t have to hide any more. Shaw was that place. And so were the rest of the team to a lesser degree. And Bear. She felt there was no way she could face Shaw right now if she knew that she would never get to touch her again. Kiss her again. The overwhelming sadness hit harder than getting electrocuted. Tears welled up in her eyes. Then she heard the soft voice in her ear. 

“Yeah…sure…” Root wiped her eyes, "...I’ll leave now,” Root said out loud to no one but herself and the Machine. “Thanks…” She nodded and walked to the entrance of the resort. 

Outside the resort, there were police, fire trucks and all kinds of emergency vehicles. People walked around in a daze. There were lots of tears and hugs. 

Shaw walked up in her war torn wedding dress, somehow looking even more gorgeous and stunning. 

“How come Root only had to say ‘Ditto’ during the vows thing?” asked a curious Zoe as she looped her arm through Reese’s arm. 

“We flipped a coin, I lost,” Reese smirked to Zoe then to Shaw. 

“So Coldplay huh?” Zoe turned her attention to Fusco and Shaw. 

Fusco walked up eating a slice of wedding cake, from a table that was miraculously not knocked over to the ground during all the chaotic stampeded of people in and out of the resort. 

“That was a Coldplay song? Geesh, you really have a hard on for them Shaw.” Fusco made a disgusted face. 

“I do not asshole, in our line of work it’s hard to keep up to date with current music. I wouldn’t be talking Mr. Selena Gomez’s fan club,” Shaw snarked back to her now thankfully teammate and no longer fake husband. “Where’s the cake?” She grabbed Fusco’s second piece of cake in his other hand. 

Joan walked up to Shaw while she was stuffing some cake in her mouth. 

“Hey, Sammy or whatever your name is. Thanks again for saving my life and ass. And I can’t believe I met my own Sammy…thanks to you and Sam,” Joan nodded over to where Keahi was standing talking to Fusco and Zoe. 

“Just doing my job,” Shaw said in between big bites of the wedding cake. 

“I so get it now. You and Sam are the ones that are actually married. You should have just posed as yourselves; Tinswell is very open-minded. I knew you two were together,” Joan said too smugly while watching Shaw who just scowled back at her. 

“We’re not married,” Shaw huffed back to a smug Joan. 

“Not yet,” replied Joan back knowing the remark would further ruffle the grumpy shorter brunette’s proverbial feathers. 

Shaw wanted to punch the annoying woman; clearly getting laid hadn’t made her less annoying. She really wanted to punch Root too for obviously doing something vague and dangerous, where the hell was she? 

Root looked out the window as the Hawaiian Islands faded down below her as if they were a magical dream. She felt her heart beater faster and tears brimming to rain down her face. The flight attendant had brought around coffee and snacks; she took a bite but couldn’t swallow. All she could think about was Shaw. And how Shaw would most likely be relieved that she had left so they didn’t have to have an awkward end to their temporary agreement. She knew going in that Shaw had a three-time rule. Root had meant it when she said she didn’t want to change anyone, she loved Shaw for who she was even if that meant she could never be the sole person in Shaw’s life.


	24. Kokomo State Of Mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, I have no idea how a one shot turned into +100k. And I'm so happy and grateful it did. Huge thank you to everyone who commented, kudoed, gave ideas, moral support, etc on the way - y'all are the BEST. This was so much fun, I didn't want it to end. And then I didn't know how to end it. Then I heard this wise quote - "Endings usually suck. Let's just enjoy the middle, the journey together." (Emma Swan, OUAT) I have enjoyed the hell out of the middle, hope y'all did too. :-)
> 
> Thanks so much to SloanGreyMercyDeath! Seriously, this last chapter was a forkin mess – so grateful you took the time to help me clean it up. You’re so awesome! Thanks to w3llthatdidntwork for the help – You Rock!

“Where’s Coco Puffs?” asked Fusco when he saw Shaw loading up her bag in the resort van to take them to the airport. 

“How would I know?” Shaw snapped angrily to her former fake husband, slamming the back doors shut of the van. 

“She’s missing a private jet back to New York?” Fusco scrunched up his face then raised his eyebrows. 

“I’m sure Ms. Groves had urgent Machine business to attend to since the threat here was resolved,” Finch walked over to the van and got into the front passenger’s seat. 

“She better had,” Shaw whispered under her breath where no one could hear. 

Shaw sat stone-faced and silent during the entire long flight back to New York. She didn’t once threaten anyone. She just ate a steak, drank a lot scotch and petted Bear. Eventually, she did fall asleep with one hand tightly holding onto her canine best friend. 

Reese and Fusco watched Shaw during the long flight, neither one interested in the free entertainment options on their seat monitors. There were dark circles under her eyes that couldn’t go unnoticed or the even more turned down expression of her lips. And Shaw’s shoulders seemed a bit hunched over, kind of deflated a bit. 

“See this is what I was talking about yesterday, the hell it’s going to be if those two loons break up. You have no idea what women get like after a break up,” Fusco whispered to Reese who remained in brooding face mode. “This is going to suck for us.”

“Lionel, calm down. You’re talking about Root and Shaw. They hardly seem like the kind that are going to binge chocolate and keep us up all night about talking about feelings,” Reese said in his deep deadpan voice to his teammate quietly. 

“That’s my point exactly. They might burn the city down or really kill each other this time. And we might get caught in their crossfire.” Fusco took another sip of his club soda as this sank in with this blank faced teammate. 

Reese paused; he looked over to watch Shaw sleeping. She looked sad. And mad. She was definitely smad. And his guess it was all aimed at one perky psycho hacker. 

When the plane landed after the long flight, the team scattered pretty quickly. Everyone was ready to get away from one grumpier than usual petite primary asset. Even though she hadn’t threatened anyone really, Shaw had growled and huffed through the entire journey back to their cold home. Not even snacks seemed to dial down her hostile grumpiness to anyone in the general area. John and Zoe grabbed a taxi together. Finch, Bear and Fusco shared a taxi back into the city. They offered a ride to Shaw but she declined, and they all sighed a breath of relief. 

Shaw didn’t know how to describe the unfamiliar feeling in her stomach that landing back in New York without Root caused, it felt like indigestion or she thought if she was lucky diarrhea. At least that would be something physical she could point to her medical brain. She didn’t want to admit that Root leaving without a word was the cause for her extreme irritation and possible weird indigestion. So Root wasn’t around. She didn’t know how to describe the unfamiliar reaction her stomach was having after have landed back in New York without Root. She cringed when she realized she almost said she was rootless. Maybe her stomach was telling her how much it missed its favorite sandwich after nearly two weeks. Even though Root had run off, she knew at some point she was going to see her. She wasn’t quite sure how her stomach or the rest of her body was going to react. She was glad she didn’t have to look Root in the face right now. She didn’t think she could face the hacker at the moment. 

She realized she had been kissing Root for nearly two weeks, whether under a jellyfish spell or under her own libido eruptions, and she didn’t know how she was going to stop doing that once they were back in New York because it was an activity that she had actually grown to like. An action she was craving again right now. She then realized if Root were to magically appear before her right now, she probably would have reached out to kiss her. And probably Root would say something horrible like they need more vulva volcano eruptions. She shook her head, how had she ever had sex with such an idiot to begin with. 

Shaw scolded herself; she realized she needed to get back in her city routines and as quickly as possible. Routines that didn’t involve kissing annoying, unbelievably hot/adorable hackers or showering with them or brushing teeth with them or any of the silly ass things they did while under the influence of tropical humidity. 

*****

Once Root got back to her apartment, she unpacked most of her stuff quickly; she put Shaw’s vision board from the art therapy session on top of a bare side table in the hallway by the front door. She made a tea and had settled down to do some work on her laptop to take her mind off Shaw. Her apartment seemed darker and quieter than usual, which was strange because it wasn’t like Shaw had ever hung around there. And it wasn’t like this was a permanent residence for her. She was already missing her favorite primary asset even though it had only been a few hours since she saw her. It was a deep ache or an itch she couldn’t find to scratch. 

Root sat staring at her laptop, unable to concentrate at all. Getting away from the city had been a huge gift; the whole team had needed a vacation. Maybe not a forced vacation that involved multiple therapy sessions and actually ended up being a life-threatening situation mission; however, the beach time and sunshine had definitely been needed and appreciated. And the Shaw time. That was something out of her wildest dreams. 

Root couldn’t sleep well that first night back, not without Shaw. In the short amount of time, she had grown very accustomed to sleeping next to Shaw. She knew leaving without saying a word was a lame way to go, but she didn’t think she could have made a long flight back sitting next to Shaw without touching her, knowing their time together was over. It possibly would have been more torturous than being injected with stimulants and sedatives at the same time. 

*****

Shaw woke up startled in bed; she had a chill on her back. Her arm grazed the bed in an empty cold space. She leaned out and reached for Root with her other arm groggily. Root was gone. She blearily opened her eyes and looked around the room. There was no sign of the hacker. Shaw sat up in bed; the logical part of her brain knew Root wasn’t in her apartment. She really hated to admit that even though she and Root had only slept together for a week and half, she’d gotten used to waking up with Root beside her. How is that possible she wondered? Root was like the worst Trojan horse virus hacking into her brain and vagina. 

*****

A week passed and Shaw still hadn’t seen Root. Not in the subway, not on any joint missions, nothing. This was making her angrier and angrier. She started to wonder if the silly ass hacker had gotten herself hurt, maybe the dumbass never made it out of Hawaii in the first place. Finch was vague about that missile, about what really happened and who was really responsible in Hawaii. Finch at times could be a very unreliable leader and narrator. 

Shaw took to breaking as many computers as possible by ‘accident’ on a daily basis. After every number that she saved, she stomped on her phones so forcibly they practically turned to dust. Finch had scolded her several times for destroying a few laptops and workstations in the subway. No matter how many computers she destroyed, she couldn’t seem to get Her attention. She was damned if she was going to ask the robot girlfriend where Root was or how she was doing. 

*****

The Machine sent Root on several solo jobs around the city and few out of state over the next few weeks. While the hacker was grateful for the work and distraction, she was curious why the Machine seemed to be purposefully keeping her away from the subway and certain team members. She longed for a team mission. She missed everybody, maybe even Finch.

After a particularly grueling mission saving a relevant number that turned out to be more trouble than expected, Root actually wandered into the subway; she was disappointed to find it empty. She stopped in front of the monitors and asked, “How is Shaw?” She could no longer not ask this question from her all seeing friend. 

Root got an immediate response with words popping up on the monitors in bold type. And all caps, the Machine was yelling. **“I’M NOT YOUR CHILD IN A DIVORCE CUSTODY HEARING. ASK YOURSELF.”**

The hacker stared, stunned, back at the screen. Sassy. A smirk crept over Root’s face. This meant that Shaw had asked about her. Or she was pretty darn sure. She decided to push the sassy artificial intelligence. 

“Has Shaw asked about me?”

Before she could get answer, Finch slowly walked into the subway. He had a slight smile on his face that quickly faded when he looked at the monitors. 

“Ms. Groves…Root…” Finch said cautiously as he stared at Root, “…please…” he paused for more time to add, “…let me get to the Oregon Trail. I’ve had dysentery 112 times already.”

Root couldn’t help an evil smile that spread across her face. She had hacked Finch’s computer to play her favorite childhood game every time he rebooted his system. And she coded it to never let him win, to never let him make it to the Oregon Trail. She had a long list of pranks and punishments for the man who accidentally shot her favorite primary asset in the leg. 

*****

The team had been following a new number for a few days; they were convinced his life was going to be in danger when he attended a company paintball event. Reese and Fusco had gone undercover to work at the same company to attend the event and Shaw had an alias pretending to work for the opposing company during the match up. 

Fusco started getting into the game, which was a game of capture the flag. The course was laid in a huge park tucked away in one of the boroughs. Each team had a prized flag on opposite ends of the course, first team to capture the other teams flag won. Reese and Shaw looked they were bored out of their minds as they stalked through the shrubs and landscape and avoided getting hit with paint. Although, no one could get a shot on them, they took out several people from the opposing team; they still protected their team’s flag while doing their mission. 

The number who was a programmer guy who stumbled upon a glitch in a software accounting system that no one wanted fix. And someone was willing to kill him to make sure he never said anything. 

Shaw stayed focus on everyone on her team. Suddenly, she heard people talking off in the distance. 

“That person is crazy! They’re shooting at anything! Hell bent on getting the flag,” yelled one guy out of breath and severely out of shape, his face was all red. He looked like he was about a brief jog or long winded rant from a heart attack.

“That asshole doesn’t seem to be on a team, they are trying to steal both flags,” another guy yelled, a slim guy who had on too much padding, clearly trying to avoid bruising from the impact of the paint pellets. 

Shaw watched the whiny baby men from behind a tree; she then quietly scurried off further away. 

“Reese, have you seen a crazy person killing people on both teams?” asked Shaw over the communication link in their earpieces. 

“Shaw, when you say kill, you mean spray with paint?” Reese deadpanned back to his female team member. 

“Sure, asshole. Looks like there’s some loony hell bent on getting to the flag. It could be a diversion to actually kill and not spray paint our number,” Shaw grumbled back to Reese. 

Right after Shaw spoke, she saw a figure running fast through the field, shooting everything in its path. She charged after the person as fast as she could. Shaw’s speed was no match for the masked individual; as soon as she was close enough, she lunged and tackled the person to the ground. They struggled with the masked individual throwing a few punches which Shaw dodged and got hit a few times. Shaw was impressed; this person knew had to throw some decent punches. Finally, Shaw got the upper body strength and roughly held down the person’s hands over their head as she tore off their mask. 

“Root?” Shaw’s eyes were wide and her mouth was hanging open as she stared down at the hacker. 

“Hey, sweetie. Did you miss me?” Root asked up shyly to Shaw. The question didn’t have its usual swagger, but still had some charm to it.

Root had no idea that Shaw would tackle her. She so wanted to reach out and pull Shaw down on top of her and smother her with kisses. She had major butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. Her eyes were roaming all over Shaw; she sorely missed feasting her sights on her primary asset. 

Shaw quickly jumped up and off Root. Sweat was dripping down her back and her heart was beating faster than usual. And her stomach felt like it was doing flip-flops. She shook her head; it couldn’t be the close proximity of Root, just the initial shock of seeing her after a few weeks. Twelve days to be exact. Shaw thought. No, it was that lousy protein bar she had scarfed down before this silly ass event started. 

Root knew she was going to see Shaw at some point today after the Machine informed her that whole team was helping on this number. She did not expect to be tackled by Shaw and have her straddling her hips while she threw punches at her. Although, thinking back to their earlier interactions, it’s not that strange. Just looking up at Shaw, she felt mouth go dry. Her heart was pounding in her chest. She was not prepared at all for any Shaw contact. All she wanted to do was pull Shaw down on top of her and hold her tight. 

“Root, what the hell are you doing here?” Shaw stared hard at Root. 

“Same thing as y’all. Making sure our number stays alive and preferably no color stains on his clothes,” Root said. Her face grew serious. “Actually, why don’t we just shoot him right now to get him out of the game and to safety?”

“Then we won’t know who’s after him,” Shaw barked to Root. 

They both stood up full now and circled each other. 

Then Root turned to leave. Shaw reached out and grabbed Root’s arm, holding her firmly and keeping her in place. 

“We’ll find out another way. I’m going to go find him,” said Root. 

“No, you’re not.” Shaw growled. 

“And what are you going to do to stop me Shaw?” Root hissed. 

They both stared off at each other, unresolved anger pouring off both women for different reasons. Shaw jerked her hand away from Root. Then very quickly, she raised her gun and shot Root. 

Pink paint splattered across Root’s camouflaged chest. 

“Looks like you’re out of the game. See ya.” Shaw squinted her eyes and threw Root a smug grin. 

Before Shaw could turn around, blue paint splattered across her chest. Root stood with her own smug grin towards Shaw. 

“Looks like you’re out too,” Root drawled as she kept her gun raised at Shaw. 

Suddenly, Shaw raised her gun back up and started rapidly firing at Root. Then Root was doing the same to Shaw. Paint was flying everywhere and almost their entire bodies were covered in colors. They were both going to have a lot of bruises tomorrow and not from sexy times. 

Root was mad because Shaw had a stupid three-night rule. And she was really sad because she missed Shaw so damn much. She missed her so much her body ached, especially in her heart. 

Shaw was mad because Root just left Hawaii without celebrating taking a missile down. A forkin missile. That needed celebrating. That achievement Shaw thought, needed naked celebrating and Root deprived them both of that occasion. 

Fusco and Reese ran over to see their two female teammates firing repeatedly on each other. They both squinted their eyes because paint was flying everywhere from so much discharge from the two toy weapons. 

“You two look like walking rainbows,” Fusco yelled at his two female teammates as they glared back at him. 

*****

Three men stood around in the subway. They all looked glum. Fusco looked both ways making sure the coast was clear before he spoke. 

“Finch, working with these two is a nightmare,” Fusco spoke quickly in case Root or Shaw were to appear out of nowhere, which the two women were known to do. 

“Agree, Finch. They are going to get someone killed, probably each other, but it could get dangerous for everybody.” Reese was less afraid of Root and Shaw, the whole thing just stressed him and made work more complicated “We almost lost the number today.”

“I’m rooting for them to get back together,” Fusco said, half joking. “Get it…rooting? How come we don’t use that more often?”

Finch sighed. He had hoped there would never be work place drama. It was one of the reasons he hoped to always work alone. Unfortunately, he had grown to think of everyone on his team as a friend and now that they were in a predicament, he was forced to help solve it. He did not know or understand how he became a mother hen of this group. The mom/dad of the group, Finch inwardly cringed. 

“Perhaps, we could ‘Parent Trap’ them?” asked Fusco earnestly with a hopeful smile to Reese and Finch. 

Awkward silence. 

“I’ve been doing a little research on bickering and possibly estranged couples. We could try that approach, Mr. Fusco. We barely have anything to lose at this point,” Finch said rather glumly. He moved over to a workstation and sat down in front of one of the many monitors and keyboards. 

“The new one or the old one?” asked Fusco to Finch who was busy typing away on his keyboard. 

“Preferably, the Haley Mills adaptation and I feel the best we can do is let them come to their own conclusions, but with just some slight nudging,” Finch reached up and readjusted his glasses. 

“I don’t think nudging is going to work with these two…’ Fusco pursed his lips. “We need to start shoving.”

*****

Finch, Reese and Fusco were all little wary of the next group mission because it did involve both Root and Shaw. The number was a guy all the bad guys wanted dead, so it was something that could go pear shaped quickly. Everyone needed to have sharp focus to make sure nothing terrible happened and they had no idea if the guy was the perpetrator or the victim. 

Root got the part of playing the number’s date. They were going to a restaurant, where Fusco was undercover as a waiter and Shaw was posing as a sous chef. Reese was watching the perimeter and keeping ears on everybody with Finch

Shaw looked out the window from the kitchen and saw Root sitting at a table with the number. The guy kept touching Root on her arm and shoulder. What an asshat, Shaw thought. She twisted a dishtowel in her hand and glared at the table.

Another one of the cooks in the kitchen walked up behind Shaw and noticed her looking out at the table. 

“Yeah, I hate when I run into an ex. That guy does seem like the worst,” said the cook guy. 

“Can you just go and do soufflé something?” Shaw barked at the guy. 

Shaw seethed in anger. She didn’t know what made her angrier – that this asshat number thought he could touch Root or that Root was allowing it to happen. Was she actually enjoying it? Shaw squinted her eyes as she continued to stare at them. 

Shaw continued to peek out from the kitchen; she pushed the kitchen door open a little so she could see more Root and the asshat guy. The guy actually put his arm around Root who flinched at first, then relaxed only slightly. Then Shaw watched as a tall, lanky, yet elegant woman joined their table and put her arm around Root too. Shaw thought what kind of threesome hell is this?

Fusco came to stand next to her as he was holding a tray of food. 

“I’m going to deliver this, see if I can get a closer look,” Fusco said but before he could move, Shaw snatched the tray from his hands. “Hey, I’m the waiter, you’re the cook.” 

“Nobody wants to eat food delivered by you, Fusco,” Shaw grumbled as she walked towards the asshat’s table. He had to be perpetrator and not the victim. She glanced at the asshat and the woman, but her eyes were glued to Root. 

The fake sous chef stormed out of the kitchen carrying the tray of appetizers. She marched over and slammed the tray down so hard the sauce in the tiny decorative bowls went flying and most of the food flew up off the tray landing all over the table. 

“Compliments of the kitchen,” Shaw said gruffly to Root and the asshat guy and skanky woman. 

“We don’t want any of this mess. Take it away, waitress.” The asshat’s voice was dripping with so much condescension and entitlement that Shaw (had to clench her fists to keep from hitting him) and Root winced in pain. 

Root looked up at Shaw with sly grin. She couldn’t help smiling, seeing Shaw so miserable and she really hoped the grumpy firecracker was miserable because of her and not because she hadn’t gotten to shoot anyone yet. 

Shaw stormed off into the kitchen. 

“I need to use the powder room. Be right back, darling,” Root said smoothly to the asshat. She then turned to the woman on the other side of her, “…and darling.” She extracted herself from the overly handsy number’s hold around her shoulders and headed towards the bathroom. When she could tell human eyes weren’t following her any more, she detoured to the kitchen. 

Root walked into the big, fancy kitchen and saw Shaw kneading some dough. Her petite primary asset was really pounding this poor dough. Shaw had her hands covered in flour and she worked the dough into submission. 

“Got any churros?” Root stood there in her low cut, form fitting stunning blue dress. 

Shaw didn’t flinch. She just punched the dough harder. It was completely unclear on what kind of pastry might need that kind of beating. She stuck her hand into a container of flour and threw more flour down on the dough and punched it harder. 

“How much longer do I have to play chef? Get your robot girlfriend to cut this one short.” Shaw pulled some dough up and tore the stringy substance into little pieces. She then looked up to stare into Root’s eyes, which she was learning was a big mistake. It was so damn easy to just keep staring. 

Root stared into Shaw’s eyes.

“Root, I’m tired and hungry and this is boring.” Shaw sounded like a grumpy teenager listing off things in an almost whiny tone. “I just want to go home.” Shaw continued to throw dough at the table. She broke eye contact. 

“Shaw, you’ve done almost everything tonight but pee on me,” Root said with a sly grin aimed at Shaw. She hoped Shaw would look up again. She slowly got closer to Shaw. 

“You did pee on me.” Shaw shout whispered at Root, she looked up and stared back at Root with her nostrils flaring. She could feel the heat coming off Root’s body now that she was standing so close. She could smell her intoxicating, infuriating familiar scent that already sent arrows of arousal shooting through her veins. More like an arsenal of arousal arrows. Shaw felt like all her blood was leaving her brain and heading downward. 

Root stared at Shaw, exasperated. She didn’t know what the she wanted. Shaw acted like she was jealous. Extremely jealous, yet also some kind of skittish, wild creature, so Root just decided to take a chance. She could feel the tension and heat in the air between them. 

“For God’s sake,” Root said quickly before she shook her head and rolled her eyes. She had to steal a signature Shaw move because she was beyond exacerbated. She stared into Shaw’s eyes for a brief second, then lowered her eyes and focused on Shaw’s lips. 

Root grabbed Shaw’s chef jacket and pulled her into a fierce, scorching kiss. Root kissed Shaw so hard that she was afraid she might get slapped for it; she was probably going to get slapped anyway. Instead, Shaw reciprocated immediately by wrapping her arms around Root’s neck to keep her in place and pull her into a deeper kiss. Root encircled her arms around Shaw’s waist pulling their bodies flush against each other. Shaw’s tongue pushed past Root’s lips immediately and went into a dominating mode of claiming Root’s mouth. Root let out a moan that should have been a lot quieter since they were both undercover. 

Despite Shaw’s hands being covered with flour, they started roaming all over Root’s body, leaving a white trail over the expensive blue fabric of the hacker’s dress. Two prominent hand prints on Root’s ass. 

For one highly trained former government operative and one extremely skilled reformed killer for hire, neither women heard someone approaching as they were too busy kissing each other senseless to notice. 

The cook guy who had talked to Shaw earlier came back wandering into the kitchen and nearly dropped his supplies from the freezer when he saw two women nearly tearing each other’s clothes off. 

“Oh, it’s the chick. Yeah, that makes more sense,” said the cook guy who leered at Root and Shaw. 

Root and Shaw tore their mouths reluctantly away from each other. Both sets of lips were already swollen, they were breathing heavily and their clothes were all askew. Root had a murderous look in her eyes; she wanted that man dead for interrupting them. 

“Damn…the two of you…so hot…” before he could finish Shaw darted towards him and punched him so hard in the face he fell backwards onto the tile floor completely knocked out. 

As Root came over to stand next to Shaw over the guy, the kitchen door swung open again. The asshat guy and the tall, lanky woman entered. 

“Is this a ruse? FBI partners who pretend to be a couple as to not to blow their cover?” The asshat pulled a gun from his coat pocket. 

“We’re not really together together,” Root offered as Shaw glared at her. 

“I don’t do relationships,” Shaw growled. Two could play this game. 

“She would date me then dump me after three dates,” Root said, her voice hitching. 

“Uh, you left. Not me.” Shaw snapped back. 

“Because you were going to leave,” Root said harshly. 

“But I didn’t,” Shaw said through gritted teeth. 

“Ladies, you are both leaving now, together. Dead.” Asshat looked momentarily confused then he motioned with his gun to a henchman and the tall, lanky woman who entered the kitchen and stood behind him. “Dump them in the usual place.” 

Thankfully, Reese and Fusco came storming into the kitchen at the perfect time and all hell broke loose. Shaw fought off the henchman while the asshat took cover behind a counter and shot at Reese and Fusco. The tall, lanky woman took off for the exit, so Root ran after her. Shaw threw the henchmen over her shoulder just in time to see the asshat aim his gun right at Root to shoot her in the back. Without thinking, Shaw grabbed her sidepiece and shot the asshat in the head. His body hit the floor with a thump. 

Reese and Fusco looked over to Shaw who remained expressionless over the dead guy. The guys looked a little surprised and concerned.  
There was silence; nobody spoke for a few seconds. 

“You made a good call,” Fusco said, solemnly. He put his hand on Shaw’s shoulder. 

Reese made the same gesture. Shaw burrowed her eyebrows and thought if Root doesn’t catch that asshat woman, she was going to shoot her too. 

*****

“Finch, just go ahead and ground me. Bench me, whatever since I killed that guy.” Shaw shuffled into the subway and plopped herself down in one of the subway car seats.

Finch looked very serious as he turned to stare at Shaw. 

“Sameen, there were circumstances. Ms. Gro…” Finch took a long pause. He stared at her for a few quiet moments. “…Root could have been gravely hurt. Your actions were understandable. If I had been in your shoes and Grace had been in that position…” He trailed uncertain he could voice his actions. 

“You would kill them all?” Shaw smirked. 

“I didn’t like the outcome of today’s situation, yet I don’t want harm to come to a mutual comrade. She is a great friend.” Finch gave a weak smile to Shaw. 

“And valuable asset,” Shaw added, thinking in a more pragmatic way. “I would have done the same for Reese. Maybe not Fusco or you.” 

The two very different people sat quietly with each other, it was slightly awkward yet a lining of comfort. Although, Shaw still planned on torturing Finch for shooting her in the leg. 

“Ms. Shaw, have you considered the obvious…” Finch wanted to choose his words carefully. Shaw was easily set off and this was a delicate topic. 

“Don’t say it, Harold,” warned Shaw. 

“I think you and Ms. Groves are in a relationship,” said Finch. “I believe you and Ms. Groves have already shared the majority of the embarrassing oddities of being physically close to someone in what a relationship constitutes by society’s standards.”

“Never did like societies or standards,” Shaw snapped. “Harold…” Shaw pinched the bridge of her nose and looked down for a moment, then looked back up into Finch’s eyes and stared intensely, “Sometimes I feel like she’s a virus within a virus the she created herself to infect me. She probably learned it from The Machine or you.”

“You might be correct. And you might also be…” Finch looked pained to say it for fear of maybe getting punched. 

“Harold…” Shaw gave him a pointed, serious look to say that if finishes his thought she might actually hit him this time. “I got it.”

Shaw got up and stormed out of the subway. 

*****

Fusco, Reese and Finch were back in the subway once again talking about Root and Shaw. 

“Okay, so we really need to start Operation Parent Trap now,” Fusco said with a hint of excitement in his voice. 

“Agreed. I think we might need to do some intervention regarding recent developments,” Finch replied. 

“What if we plan a grand romantic gesture for them?” Reese asked and in return got two surprised looks from Fusco and Finch. “What?”

Both Fusco and Finch shook their heads, pleasantly surprised by the contribution of Reese. 

“Doesn’t one of them need to run to the airport? Like in the movies?” asked a confused Fusco. 

“Mr. Fusco, it’s not always an airport. It’s metaphorical.” Finch furrowed his brow while Reese just shook his head. 

“We can’t be that obvious, we need to be discreet,” said Finch. “It needs to be their idea.” 

Fusco stood up and paced around the subway. “Yeah, look who we’re dealing with.” He was talking to himself. 

“What if, we just follow the movie? Set up a dinner for them?” Reese threw the question out there. 

“Food will bring Shaw in,” Fusco shrugged. 

“And scotch,” Reese added. 

“Bam! I’ve got the best idea. I think it will work.” Fusco clapped his hands together in his brilliant idea. 

“It’s not obvious right?” Finch questioned. “Discretion is key. I still think nudging is better than shoving.” 

“Oh yeah, it’s gonna work,” Fusco nodded, a huge smile on his face. “Where can we get 100 bags of sand?”

*****

The Machine had sent a message to Root telling her to go to the subway for a very important mission. Yes, the Machine had been recruited for Operation Friend Trap. The Machine had also changed the name of the operation. She told the guys she thought of Root and Shaw as more like disaster gay aunts than parents and that she had consumed all the meta data from Tumblr so she had a different perspective on some stuff now. The Machine sent separate messages to both Root and Shaw instructing them to arrive at the subway at a certain time. 

When Root arrived at the subway, the first thing she noticed was the crunch under her boots. She looked down to see the subway floor was covered in sand. The entire subway was bathed in a blueish light, along with a warm glow brought on by candles lit everywhere and all the monitors displaying campfires. 

Shaw came bounding down the subway stairs and nearly fell down when she saw the transformation. It looked like a luau had thrown up in the subway. Along with all the candles, there were colored lights strung up everywhere. There was a big sandcastle near the entrance to the subway car itself. Flowers were draped all along the walls. Sand covered the floor. A massive table was set up with food and drinks, all in a Hawaiian theme. Ocean sounds were playing from several hidden speakers, but also there was light music playing. 

“Is that Kokomo?!” Shaw shouted in an agitated tone. “Fusco!”

“He does love a good saxophone solo,” Root added casually as she waltzed over to Shaw. “We should be thankful, Fusco isn’t here himself doing a karaoke version.”

“Where the hell did you come from?” Shaw looked over to Root with wide eyes. Her eyes betrayed her, raking up and down Root’s body in a way that made her cheeks feel warm. 

“Over by the ‘ocean,’ which is an inflatable swimming pool,” Root nodded to the far end of the subway. “Which I’m guessing Bear is going to love once he sees it.” 

Both women stared at each other. Shaw broke eye contact first to look around again. They stood wearing heavy winter coats, scarves and hats while a fake beach surrounded them. It was definitely warmer in the subway, too. Huge heaters had been brought down along with all the decorations and sand. 

Root walked over to the monitors and looked into the camera. “Are you in on this too?”

The hacker continued to glare at the blank screen. Then some words appeared on the screen in a continues scroll with musical notes, _“Let’s get together, yeah, yeah, yeah. Why don’t you and I combine. We could have a swingin’ time. We’d be a crazy team. Why don’t we make a scene together.”_

“Not funny,” Root stood up and crossed her arms against her chest. 

Shaw walked over with a fruity drink in a big pineapple cup; she proceeded to spill the contents all over the monitor and keyboard. Then she tore off her coat, the room and the nearness of Root making everything insufferable warm. 

“God. You make me crazy. This isn’t my life,” Shaw growled out in frustration as she went back to the table to get another fruity drink. 

“I’m not the one that set this up,” Root put her hands on her hips and said defensively. She took off her coat too; she threw it over some monitors, covering some of the cameras.

Shaw took another big fruit pineapple drink and downed the whole thing, then slammed it on the table in frustration. She looked at Root. 

“I’m not around people all the time like this. I’m not used to being around someone all the time like we were in Hawaii and I didn’t get tired of you, which was really…annoying. I don’t do relationships because they require work that I can’t do. I can do about anything from taking out your appendix to dismantling a hydrogen bomb, but making someone happy is not in my skill set.” Shaw rushed out all at once. She breathed heavily and quickly looked at Root for her reaction. Her eyes were a little wild, almost as if she was on a dangerous mission.

Root started back at Shaw with a warm smile. 

“You haven’t re-evaluated your skill set in a while because you do make people happy. Look how happy you make Bear. You make everyone on this team happy whether you like it or not. And you make me tremendously happy, Shaw.” Root put her hands up to emphasize. “Without even trying.” 

“Root…” Shaw looked a little defeated, like she had just been punched in the gut and the wind knocked out of her. 

“Shaw…you make me happy just being a part of my life and you save my life on multiple occasions, which also makes me happy. Then, sometimes, I get to save your life, which makes me really happy and then there was the sex.” Root had a dopey look on her face now. 

Shaw just stood motionless, not knowing how to respond. 

“Shaw, I want you for more than three nights, that’s why I left. I only left because three nights will never be enough concerning you and that pain was worse than any bullet.” Root felt breathless now, trying to say everything to Shaw she needed to say. 

Root could feel her emotions building stronger and bubbling to the surface, she fought back oncoming tears. She wanted to continue on, she didn’t know if she would ever get a chance to talk to Shaw like this again in this somewhat creepy, poorly made, beach luau setting. 

“You told me never to take a bullet for you. The same goes for you. Don’t you ever do that for me.” Root had a crazed look in her eyes. “I’m so uninterested in a world that doesn’t include you, Shaw.” 

Shaw stared back at Root. She could tell Root’s eyes were watery and threatening to spill over and run down her cheeks. 

“In any capacity, friend or foe. Clothed or unclothed.” Root gazed intensely into Shaw’s eyes. “Just you in the world. In my world in some small or big way.” 

“I can’t make that promise.” Shaw stared back and moved closer to Root. 

“I can’t make that promise, Sameen. I’ll step in a hail of bullets for you, if the time comes.” Root knew she was about let loose and she didn’t want to cry in front of Shaw. 

“Root…” Shaw said in a horse voice. 

It was too late; Root had already stormed out of the subway luau.

*****

Fusco poked his head in the subway and then slowly crept down the stairs to see if Root and Shaw were still there. He almost hoped to be scarred for life by seeing them reconcile in whatever scary chick way they were going to. Yet, when his eyes adjusted to the dimmer lights, he saw Shaw sitting by herself in the sand. She was running her hands back and forth making circles in the sand. Fusco sighed heavily and made his way over to sit by his friend and teammate. 

“I know you don’t do relationships, but you might want to take another look. She took care of you when you got stung and it was really gross and I know you like her on some level, some kind of Shaw level, or you would probably would have killed her by now.” He smiled at Shaw. 

Shaw didn’t look up at him. She took a sip of her fruity drink and continued running her hands in the sand. 

“Look, you two…are odd ducklings. You don’t fit in with other ducks. Have either of you ever gone out to party or group of people and thought to yourself ’those are my kind of people’?” Fusco raised his eyebrows. 

“No,” Shaw looked up at Fusco this time. She noticed he was wearing a terrible Hawaiian shirt. 

“I’m willing to bet that Root is the only human being you can stand being with for a long stretch of time. Same goes the other way, too.” Fusco said softly with warm eyes towards Shaw. 

“If you don’t stop the loop of Kokomo playing, I’m going to murder you in your sleep and bury you in that hideous Hawaiian shirt,” Shaw growled at Fusco. 

*****

Hours later Root, sat in her apartment and realized she still hadn’t been able to write any successful code so she gave up and went to go to bed. She changed into a tank top and a stolen pair of Shaw’s boy shorts. As she was brushing her teeth, she heard a knock on her door. The Machine hadn’t alerted her that someone would be knocking on her door. She wasn’t expecting anyone, so the knock could be good or bad. She grabbed her gun and held it behind the door, just in case. 

When she opened the door, Root was very pleasantly surprised to see Shaw on the other side. Root watched Shaw’s eyes glance up and down her body, no doubt clocking the stolen underwear with a sneer, but the petite primary asset’s eyes also deeply darkened. The hacker let a tiny smirk tug at her lips for the effect she had on Shaw. 

“Do you usually open your door in your underwear?”

“Only for you,” Root smiled at Shaw. 

Shaw brought out a canvas from behind her back. It was Root’s collage vision board from the arts and craft therapy session. Her good code people vision board. 

“This ended up in my suitcase…” Shaw offered it out to Root to take. 

Root couldn’t believe Shaw had her vision board from the art therapy session. She willed herself not to cry, but her eyes watered up any way. She turned her head and forced a hard cough, a hard cough was good for warding off fainting and in some cases she found crying. 

“I’ve got a nice companion piece in here to go with it,” Root motioned to the table where Shaw’s vision board was propped up against the wall.  
Shaw walked into Root’s apartment while the hacker beamed out a smile and closed the door. 

“Root…” Shaw paused; she couldn’t stop starring into Root’s eyes. She never wanted to look into anyone’s eyes as much as Root’s. And stupid kissing. Here she stood wanting to kiss Root again, always wanting to kiss her. She never wanted to kiss anyone as much as Root. “I don’t do relationships.”

“Shaw, I like you just the way you are.” Root moved a little closer to Shaw in the living room now. 

“You deserve a relationship,” Shaw said sternly as if this was fact. 

“Who says?” Root’s eyebrows shot up and furrowed as she continued to stare hard at Shaw. 

Shaw shrugged. 

“What I probably deserve…” Root drawled out moving yet closer to Shaw. 

“Is a swift kick in the pants” Shaw didn’t move away. 

“I would prefer a long lick in the pants.” Root was a few inches from Shaw now and she could feel the heat coming off her body. 

Shaw rolled her eyes. 

“What I deserve and what I need are different things. Also, what I want. And…actually what I want and what I need are finally aligned for the first time in my life, I think.” Root smiled warmly at Shaw. 

Root waited and watched Shaw. Her stomach felt like a swarm of butterflies were having a rave. 

“What do you want?” Root asked Shaw, afraid to hear the answer yet desperate at the same time to hear the answer. 

“I want to have sex with you a lot. And I don’t want you to get killed. Well…not by anyone other than me.” Shaw stared at Root’s lips. 

“That’s all I want. Plus, I want to kiss you a lot. Have you seen your lips? They’ve got a great shape.” Root licked her lips as she stared at Shaw’s great shape. 

Shaw didn’t want to leave; all she wanted to do was spend the night with Root. Her brain tried to wrap around how to process this new aspect to her life. This life change. Then, something clicked in her head. 

“So…we had like an island agreement in Hawaii, right?” Shaw asked as she ran her tongue over her lips. 

Shaw shifted her weight from one leg to other leg. She felt heat sweeping through her body. Things made more sense to her now. 

Root stared at Shaw anxiously, afraid and excited at the same time waiting to hear Shaw’s next words. Knowing they could go either way. 

“You know…Manhattan is an island,” Shaw stated the fact as she stared at Root with a slow smile spreading across her face. 

Root’s face lit up with a smile so big it could power Times Square if there was a power outage. 

“You’re right. Manhattan is an island.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Borrowed two lines from favorite things, one from Gilmore Girls and one from a Richard Curtis movie. - Romcom easter eggs?? :-)


End file.
